11.3 Temperature Forests PDF

Preview

Summary

11.3 Temperature Forests...

Description

11.3: Temperature Forests 

Deciduous Temperate Forest occurs in east North America, western and central Europe, eastern Asia and southern tip of chile



Winter deciduous trees dominate, leaves in spring and summer, in fall the change color, winter leaves are lost



Evergreen warm TF occurs below the boundary with deciduous TF, in Japan, South Korea, south western China and the foothills of the Himalayas. Evergreen warm TF also occurs in southern Chile, in the North Island of New Zealand and in south eastern Australia



Evergreen cold TF occurs in eastern Australia, Tasmania and South Island of New Zealand, conifer leaves



Deciduousness: prevents leaves from desiccating during winter and branches from accumulating too much snow and breaking. Conifers too, prevents from leaves desiccating when the soil becomes too cold, advantageous by preventing plants from accumulating so much snow



Greatest danger is freezing, plants can delay freezing by accumulating solutes, anti-freeze in their tissues



Tradeoff between growth rate and longevity across light gradients



There are trade-offs in canopy architecture, with shade-adapted species spreading their leaves over a wider surface to capture more sunlight, and light-adapted species making many layers of leaves to minimize leaf overheating and desiccation.



Shade tolerant species need to be efficient in carbon economy. Thus, they build much less conductive xylem tissue than light-demanding species, and they cannot sustain high transpiration rates in high irradiance without desiccating their leaves...