Rainforest vs Taiga
One forest is hot, wet and teeming with life; the other is cold, quiet and slow-growing. Compare the tropical rainforest and the taiga, and weigh up the very different threats each one faces.
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Two forests, two worlds 🌳
The **tropical rainforest** is hot, wet and bursting with life. The **taiga**, or boreal forest, is cold, quiet and slow to grow. Both are important, and both are under threat, but the dangers they face are very different. This module compares them side by side.
Rainforest and taiga compared ⚖️
The **climate** of each biome shapes everything else about it.
The language of the biosphere 🔑
Four ideas run through this topic:
Build the rainforest, top to bottom 🪜
An interactive activity.
Match each rainforest adaptation to its job 🍃
- Drip-tip leaves
- Buttress roots
- Lianas
- Waxy leaf surfaces
- Let heavy rain run off quickly
- Support tall trees in thin soil
- Climb other trees to reach the light
- Help water slide off the leaf
Where is life richest? 🎯
Which biome has the greater biodiversity?
- The tropical rainforest
- The taiga
- They have exactly the same
- Neither has any biodiversity
Where the goodness is stored ♻️
In the rainforest, warmth and rain make dead leaves rot **fast**. Most nutrients are held in the living plants, the **biomass**, not in the thin soil, and are quickly taken up again. That is why clearing the trees is so damaging: the store of nutrients is removed with them, leaving poor soil behind.
Why the rainforest is cleared ✅
Select the TWO causes of tropical rainforest deforestation.
- Clearing land for farming and cattle ranching
- Commercial logging for timber
- Heavy snow snapping conifer branches
- Acid precipitation drifting from industry
Match each taiga adaptation to its job 🌲
- Needle-shaped leaves
- A conical shape
- Staying evergreen
- Dark green needles
- Cut down water loss in the cold
- Let heavy snow slide off the branches
- Grow the moment the short summer allows
- Absorb what little sunlight there is
A danger to the far north ❄️
Which of these is a threat to the taiga (boreal) forest?
- Acid precipitation drifting from distant industry
- Warm, wet weather feeding fast growth
- Losing its drip-tip leaves
- Buttress roots rotting away
Two biomes in words 🧩
The tropical rainforest is hot and wet, with very high _____. Its nutrients are mostly stored in the _____, not the thin soil. It is threatened by _____ to clear land for farming and timber. The taiga is a cold _____ forest with slow growth, threatened by logging and by _____ that drifts from industry.
Spot the true statements 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Name the biome and the threat 🧭
An interactive activity.
Compare and protect 🌍✍️
An interactive activity.