Abiotic factors like wind, water, temperature, and sunlight strongly influence the deciduous forest ecosystem. Wind spreads pollen but also disease. Water is essential for all life in the forest. Temperature cues trigger seasonal changes in plant and animal behavior. Sunlight determines the forest structure, with tall trees forming the canopy. Animals adapt through migration, hibernation, and food storage. Plant adaptations include broad, lightweight leaves that are shed in autumn to avoid damage from cold temperatures.

1. Abiotic Things in
Deciduous Forest

2. Wind
 The wind is a highly variable, nonliving factor that has a great impact on those
that live in the deciduous forest. Strong winds fell branches and trees,
beginning the decomposition process that returns nutrients captured in plants
back to the soil.
 Plants rely on winds to spread pollen, fertilizing nearby plants. But winds also
pick up particles from exposed soil, spreading not only dirt, but any bacteria or
fungal microorganisms that may be present in the soil.
 Long periods of strong winds can even be responsible for spreading disease
through a forest.

3. Water
 Water is nonliving, and plants and animals rely on it for survival. Whether falling
on the forest plants as rain or drank by animals from a pond or slow-moving
stream, life in the forest would not be able to survive without it.
 Standing and slow-moving water is also an entire habitat to a number of
microorganisms, such as algae. When the temperature and chemical makeup of the
water is right, this can encourage the growth of organisms like algae that can
potentially throw off the existing balance of the ecosystem..
 Rainfall is also a critical factor in the deciduous forest; the constant precipitation
keeps soil moist without being wet, making it one of the most fertile biomes.

4. Temperature
 Warm spring months ease the plants and animals back to life, encouraging
animal reproduction with the development of new leaves and plants.
 The warmer summer months allow these animals long enough to raise their
young, often allowing them to set off on their own prepared to fend for
themselves by the fall.
 As the temperature starts to drop, the trees of the deciduous forest lose their
leaves and go into a state of hibernation.
 This temperature cue is critical for the animals as well, some of whom begin
storing food for the winter months while others gorge themselves in preparation
for hibernation.
 The long winter months mean a struggle for survival during the long period
when the deciduous forest is snow-covered.
 The average annual temperature in a deciduous forest is 50° F

5. Sunlight
 All plants need sunlight to survive, and it is this basic building block
of life that has formed much of the structure of the deciduous forest.
 Trees are encouraged to grow tall; the taller the trees, the more
sunlight is available to the leaves of the canopy.
 Beneath these tall, established trees are a shorter layer, often close to
the ground. These ferns and shrublike bushes tend to be varieties
that thrive in shady conditions, as they have to survive on what
sunlight makes it through the trees.

6. Animals and Plants

7. Animals
 A wide variety of mammals, birds, insects, and reptiles can be found in a
deciduous forest biome.
 Mammals that are commonly found in a deciduous forest include bears,
raccoons, squirrels, skunks, wood mice, and, in the U.S., deer can be found in
these forests.
 While bobcats, mountain lions, timberwolves, and coyotes are natural
residents of these forests, they have nearly been eliminated by humans
because of their threat to human life.

8. ANIMAL ADAPTATIONS
 Migration and hibernation are two adaptations used by the animals in
this biome.
 While a wide variety of birds migrate, many of the mammals and
reptiles hibernate during the cold winter months when food is in short
supply.
 Another behavioral adaptation some animals have adopted is food
storage. The nuts and seeds that are plentiful during the summer are
gathered by squirrels, chipmunks, and some jays, and are stored in the
hollows of trees for use during the winter months.

9. Animals and their
adaptations
Chipmunks can run quickly to get
away from predators. They have a
good sense of hearing. They blend
White-tailed Deer: White tailed in with the wood and forest around
American Black Bear deer are solitary animals and bear them. They have sharp teeth and
reddish fur in summer that turns paws for finding and digging up
Like most of the hibernating
grayish in winter. The male deer food or making burrows. They also
species, these black bears
have antlers that they tend to shed hibernate during the winter so they
also like to hide in the winter
and regrow in a particular period if don't die of cold. They find and
season, especially for
the year. They feed themselves on store food all year long for the long
breeding.
green leaves during summer and winter months.
nuts and such things during winter.

10. Plants
 Trees of this biome include both broadleaf, deciduous trees, such as maple and oak. A
deciduous forest typically has three to four, and sometimes five, layers of plant growth.
 Tall deciduous trees make up the top layer of plant growth, and they create a moderately
dense forest canopy. Although the canopy is moderately dense, it does allow sunlight to
reach the forest floor. This sunlight allows plants in the other layers to grow.
 The second layer of plant growth includes saplings and species of trees that are
naturally shorter in stature.
 A third layer (or understory) would include shrubs.
 Forest herbs, such as wildflowers and berries, make up a fourth layer.
 During the spring, before the deciduous trees leaf out, these herbs bloom and grow
quickly in order to take advantage of the sunlight.
 A fifth layer would include mosses and lichens that grow on tree trunks.

12. PLANT ADAPTATIONS
 In the spring, deciduous trees begin producing thin, broad, light-
weight leaves.
 This type of leaf structure easily captures the sunlight needed
for food production (photosynthesis).
• The broad leaves are great when temperatures are warm and
there is plenty of sunlight.
• However, when temperatures are cold, the broad leaves
expose too much surface area to water loss and tissue
damage.
• To help prevent this damage from occurring, deciduous
trees make internal and physical adaptations that are
triggered by changes in the climate.

13. PLANT ADAPTATIONS
 Cooler temperatures and limited sunlight are two climatic conditions that
tell the tree to begin adapting.
 In the Fall, when these conditions occur, the tree cuts off the supply of
water to the leaves and seals off the area between the leaf stem and the tree
trunk.
 With limited sunlight and water, the leaf is unable to continue producing
chlorophyll, and as the chlorophyll decreases the leaves change color. The
beautiful display of brilliant red, yellow, and gold leaves, associated with
deciduous forests in the fall, is a result of this process.
 Most deciduous trees shed their leaves, once the leaves are brown and dry.
 The plants have adapted to the forests by leaning toward the sun. Soaking
up the nutrients in the ground is also a way of adaptation.

14. Plants and their adaptations
Many trees have thick
Broad leaves can bark to protect In the autumn,
capture a lot of against the cold deciduous trees
sunlight for a tree.
winters in the drop their leaves
temperate deciduous to minimize water
forest. loss.