Question

Describe at least THREE adaptations that conifers have made to survive in the taiga.

Answer 1

These two sites may help: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/taiga.html "plants section" and http://www.alaskadenalitours.com/alaska_natural_history/trees_of_alaska.html look at the Range of each type of tree. But I'm not exactly sure..

Answer 2

I need to have this all explained to me or something, I'm so confused..

Answer 3

To find an answer for this you could better search for "gymnosperms" instead of conifers.
It has something to do with their shapes, the "needle" leaves with multicellular dark colored epidermis/coat (called cuticle) and the fact that they are evergreens

Maybe this would help you http://faculty.unlv.edu/landau/gymnosperms.htm
actually the first article you posted explains most of it :)

Answer 4

But aren't gymnosperms different from conifers? Because gymno is a type of sperm along with angio. Gymno means hidden, sperm means seed (hidden seed). Angio means naked, sperm means seed (naked seed). And a conifer is any of numerous, chiefly evergreen trees or shrubs of the class Coniferinae (or group Coniferales), including the pine, fir, spruce, and other cone-bearing trees and shrubs, and also the yews and their allies that bear drupelike seeds. A plant producing naked seeds in cones, or single naked seeds as in yews, but with pollen always borne in cones. Well I guess it is alike with angiosperms with the naked seeds, but I'm still a little confused.. Sorry, I'm being difficult.. >_<

Answer 5

Conifers are from kingdom plantae, phylum pinophyta. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. Ill explain when I get home, hold on :)

Answer 6

Okay. c:

Answer 7

Do you need anymore help?

Answer 8

I'm just waiting on thomaster, thank you though. c:

Answer 9

np

Answer 10

But he is offline

Answer 11

Yeah, he's heading home. He said he'd help when he gets home.\(\Huge\color{lightgreen}{\ddot\smile }\)

Answer 12

Allright where were we :P
What does the taiga have that makes it such a hard place to live?

Answer 13

*for plants :P

Answer 14

Alright*
Uhmm.. Well it does have a lot of pine trees and cold weather, right?
But I'm the reason why it's such a hard place to live. Sorry, I can't think. >_<

Answer 15

I'm sure that's not*

Answer 16

Okay it's cold thats one.
Trees need water to live, what happens to water when it gets cold?

Answer 17

I think i can help with this

Answer 18

It freezes.. Oh, right! The ground gets cold making it hard for the plants to get any water. I remember my teacher saying something about this, but it's also not much of an issue for the plants because they keep the water trapped or something.. I can't remember entirely...

Answer 19

Taiga, or boreal forests, the largest terrestrial biome on the planet, covering much of the Northern Hemisphere, are an important habitat for many animal species. Taiga winters are long and harsh, with temperatures averaging below freezing for six months of the year. Animals in the taiga have developed several important physical and behavioral adaptations to survive in the challenging environment.

Many animals that remain in the taiga throughout the year have developed physical adaptations that help them survive. Survival in the taiga winter means keeping warm, which most permanent resident animals do with long, thick fur. Winter survival also requires finding food and avoiding predators. Some taiga animals, such as the snowshoe hare and the ermine, change color in the winter to blend in with the snowy environment. These animals change from brown or grey to white in the winter to allow for better camouflage. Animals such as the Canada lynx and the snowshoe hare also have wide feet that allow them to travel easily across the snow to either catch prey or escape a predator.



Conifer
1. The conifer has needle-like leaves. This gives the conifer less surface area, meaning less water loss.
2. They produce pollen grains. This allows animals to deliver the pollen directly to female plant parts.
3. Seed- which is a plant embryo that is packaged with a food supply and can remain dormant for years until favorable conditions occur.

Answer 20

there we go

Answer 21

Yes and gymnosperms have a trick to avoid dehydration. they have a coating around the needles that prevents water loss through transpiration, also the needle shape limits the surface area. that also prevents water loss

Answer 22

thomaster i wrote a paragraph that should definitely help you guys

Answer 23

@iceicebaby You didn't wrote that, that's just a copy of http://www.ehow.com/info_8254366_adaptations-animals-survive-taiga.html ...

Answer 24

i know it is for you guys i copied you should read it it actually helped me understand it

Answer 25

So, we're talking about \(\bf\underline{conifers}\) and you post an article about how \(\bf\underline{animals}\) survive the taiga xD i don't see how that's helping :P

Answer 26

Plagiarism isn't cool.

Answer 27

Conifer
1. The conifer has needle-like leaves. This gives the conifer less surface area, meaning less water loss.
2. They produce pollen grains. This allows animals to deliver the pollen directly to female plant parts.
3. Seed- which is a plant embryo that is packaged with a food supply and can remain dormant for years until favorable conditions occur.

Answer 28

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_adaptations_of_a_conifer_tree

:P

says nothing about taiga

Answer 29

I know what a conifer is, thanks though. \(\Huge\color{hotpink}{\ddot\smile }\)

Answer 30

anyways let's get back to the question.
We already got:
-Prevention of water loss through transpiration
--The needle shape which limits the surface area
--The coating

So when it's cold and the ground is frozen, the conifer has limited water to absorb. The plant compensates that by limiting water loss \(\Huge\ddot\smile\)

But there are alot more adaptions.
Like the shape of the trees, any idea what that might be for?

Answer 31

Why the trees are shaped the way they are? Hmm.. let me think lol.

Answer 32

They're cone shaped(or conical).. I'm guessing that's why it's conifers, "con" from "cone", just a guess. It helps the snow to fall off the leaves when it snows, but i'm not sure if that has much significance to this.. maybe it does though, also what about sunlight? I'm guess since the weather is always cold and there's a lot of snow, that they don't get a whole lot. But they must be getting at least some, right?

Answer 33

Yea they do have a pointy shape which will cause snow to fall off the trees easily. With snow on the branches, the tree doesn't receive sunlight. it needs sunlight to perform photosynthesis (a process in which the tree creates it's nutrients from water and carbon dioxide). Also the needles are dark of color so that it absorbs more sunlight energy.

Answer 34

About the name conifer, thats comes from the latin words conus (cone) and fero (i bear). So i bear cones, which is a reference to the pinecones that grow on conifers.

Answer 35

Interesting. c:
We only needed 3 but then we started discussing more. Cx
You're right, you're like REALLY good at bio. \(\Huge\color{cyan}{Awesome!}\)

Answer 36

I study biology \(\huge\sf\color{red}{:}\color{blue}{D}\)

Answer 37

Would be bad thing if i wasn't good at it xD

Answer 38

\huge\sf\color{cyan}{x}\color{cyan}{3} True.

Answer 39

\(\huge\sf\color{cyan}{x}\color{cyan}{3} True\) :P

Answer 40

I know, I fail.. x3

Answer 41

I'm a noob, what do you expect from me?

Answer 42

there's a section to practice this stuff youknow :)

Answer 43

\(\sf\Huge \href{/study#/groups/LaTeX%20Practicing!%20%3A)}{\LaTeX}\)

Answer 44

that's actually a link to it :P

Answer 45

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Answer 46

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Answer 47

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Answer 48

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Answer 49

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Answer 50

You're just too pro x3

Answer 51

• Prevention of water loss through transpiration
• The needle shape which limits the surface area
• The coating
For these three adaptations, do you mind going a little bit more in depth as to why?

Answer 52

well because the surface area of the needles is smaller than the surface area of normal angiosperm leaves, it has less stomata. Stomata are little pores in the epidermis (top skin) of leaves. Through these pores, water vapor is released into the atmosphere, that's called transpiration. When there are less stomata, less water vapor is released.

Answer 53

Does that explain it all? I'm still confused >_<

Answer 54

that explain the needles instead of leaves

Answer 55

The waxy coating on the needles is called the cuticle. It's hydrophobic so water won't go through it. that way the plant doesn't lose water.

Answer 56

Right. c:

Answer 57

Don't all three of these kind of mean the same thing? Because the prevention of water loss is because the shape of the needle, and coating also helps to not lose water.

Answer 58

Yes it has the same effect, only there are more ways to achieve this effect.

The 3 most important ones:
- prevention of water loss (dehydration)
- conic shape (which helps them shed snow)
- dark green needle color (for absorbing more energy needed for photosynthesis)

Answer 59

\(\Huge\sf\color{cyan}{Thank~You!}\Huge\color{cyan}{\ddot\smile}\)

Answer 60

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Answer 61

Can you tell I really like the cyan? Cx

Answer 62

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