CG: n
CT: The taiga is a forest of the cold, subarctic region. The subarctic is an area of the Northern Hemisphere that lies just south of the Arctic Circle. The taiga lies between the tundra to the north and temperate forests to the south.
Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Siberia have taigas. In Russia, the world’s largest taiga stretches about 5,800 kilometers (3,600 miles), from the Pacific Ocean to the Ural Mountains. This taiga region was completely glaciated, or covered by glaciers, during the last ice age.
The soil beneath the taiga often contains permafrost—a layer of permanently frozen soil. In other areas, a layer of bedrock lies just beneath the soil. Both permafrost and rock prevent water from draining from the top layers of soil. This creates shallow bogs known as muskegs. Muskegs can look like solid ground, because they are covered with moss, short grasses, and sometimes even trees. However, the ground is actually wet and spongy.
S: NatGeo – https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/taiga/ (last access: 23 April 2025)
N: 1. belt of coniferous forests in Siberia, 1869, from Russian taiga, which is of Mongolian origin.
2. taiga, also known as boreal forest.
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aiga, biome (major life zone) of vegetation composed primarily of cone-bearing needle-leaved or scale-leaved evergreen trees, found in northern circumpolar forested regions characterized by long winters and moderate to high annual precipitation. The taiga, “land of the little sticks” in Russian, takes its name from the collective term for the northern forests of Russia, especially Siberia.
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The taiga, which is also known as the boreal (meaning northern) forest region, occupies about 17 percent of Earth’s land surface area in a circumpolar belt of the far Northern Hemisphere. Northward beyond this limit, the taiga merges into the circumpolar tundra. The taiga is characterized predominantly by a limited number of conifer species—i.e., pine (Pinus), spruce (Picea), larch (Larix), fir (Abies)—and to a lesser degree by some deciduous genera such as birch (Betula) and poplar (Populus). These trees reach the highest latitudes of any trees on Earth. Plants and animals in the taiga are adapted to short growing seasons of long days that vary from cool to warm. Winters are long and very cold, the days are short, and a persistent snowpack is the norm. The taiga biomes of North America and Eurasia display a number of similarities, even sharing some plant and animal species.
3. Ecosystems: boreal forest, taiga
- A coniferous evergreen forest of subarctic lands, which is a transition zone between the dense forests and the tundra.
- boreal forest; taiga: terms used by Parks Canada.
- boreal forest: term used at Natural Resources Canada – Earth Sciences Sector.
4. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention Taiga (1992), an eight-hour documentary directed and photographed by Ulrike Ottinger.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=taiga (last access: 23 April 2025). 2. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/science/taiga (last access: 23 April 2025). 3. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=TAIGA&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 23 April 2025). 4. IMDb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105521/ (last access: 23 April 2025).
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CR: biome, canid, ecology, felid, forest, jungle, prairie, savanna, silviculture, steppe, tropical rainforest, tundra.
