This presentation followed along and came from an expanded written report. The written report had a complete works cited included.

1. BIOMES
Temperate Deciduous Forests
Stephanie Abrahamson
Geography 101, Fall 2015

4. The scientific community likes to classify things. They have divided the world into
ecoregions which are areas of similar habitat. Biomes group ecoregions into areas that
have similar vegetation AND also consider similar climate, habitat structure, and ecological
similarity. An ecosystem is the interaction of living and nonliving things in an environment.
A biome is a specific geographic area notable for the species living there. A biome can be
made up of many ecosystems. (7)

6. Our text book simply defines biomes as “a large, recognizable assemblage of
plants and animals in functional interaction with its environment.” (2) While our text
mentions only 11, there are about 12 main, aquatic and terrestrial defined biomes: coral
reef, desert, grassland, lake and pond, ocean, river and stream, seashore, taiga,
temperate deciduous forests, tropical rain forests, tundra, wetland. There are other
sources that define 6-13 varieties, some involving only the land masses.

8. This graph shows the world wide
breakdown of different biomes by
percentage.
My focus for this project is on
temperate deciduous forest or TDF.

10. Description
Temperate deciduous forests are located between the polar regions and the tropics.
The regions are exposed to warm and cold air masses, which cause this area to have four
seasons. The temperature varies widely with cold winters and hot, wet summers.
During the fall, trees change color and then lose their leaves. Many different kinds of
broadleaf trees, shrubs, and herbs grow in deciduous forests.

12. What is it?
Temperature
-22 to 86 degrees, yearly average is 50 degrees F; hot, wet summers, cold winters
Precipitation
29.5 to 59 inches of precipitation per year in rain and snow
Vegetation
Broadleaf trees (oaks, maples, beeches), shrubs, perennial herbs, and mosses
Location
SE United States, S end of S America, Canada, W Europe, NE Asia, China, and Japan
Temperate deciduous forests are most notable because they go through four seasons.

14. There are five layers found in the temperature deciduous forest biome.
The ground layer is home to moss and to lichens. The herb layer allows for
short plants to grow. At the shrub layer you will find huckleberries and
many other flora. The small tree layer is where the saplings are found.
The top layer is the tree stratum where you will find them growing up to
100 feet tall including maple and oak trees.

16. Where is it?
When you look at a map of the world, lines of latitude form invisible belts that circle the
globe. These lines of latitude can be grouped into three different categories as you move
away from the equator. Regions that lie between 0° and 23° north and south latitude are
called the Tropics, regions between 23° and 66° are called the Temperate latitudes, and
regions between 66° and 90° are called the Polar latitudes..

18. We rely on the oxygen from the trees in the temperate deciduous biome
as well as all forests more than most people realize. We also need to leave
these environments in tact for the oxygen/carbon benefits. There are
some conservation efforts in place but the damage has already had a
severe impact in many of these biome locations around the world.

20. A good deal of the human population is found in areas that once supported temperate
forests. The biggest threat to temperate forests is development and agriculture. Other
threats to the forest come from logging; most of the trees here are hardwoods, which
means they have a denser wood and may grow more slowly. There is more pressure to
cut the trees (clearcutting) to maintain volume at the sawmill.
Acid rain and water pollution from coal/fossil fuel burning is another threat, as is global
warming, which in particular may change rainfall patterns.
The issue of forest fragmentation occurs when only small patches of forest are left to
maintain species diversity. Diversity is important for all species to remain healthy and
resilient toward disease. The EPA estimates that more than 19 percent of all forests in the
U.S. consist of smaller patches rather than a "core forest" in which biodiversity can occur.

22. Read 1st sentence and 1st paragraph of Robert’s paragraph

24. Read 2nd paragraph fr Robert’s book

26. Today he has a sustainable, integrated organic farming system that can
be replicated. He uses NO chemicals and gets 20-30% MORE money for
his duck-rice than his neighbors do for their rice crop. His methods have
spread to more than 75,000 farmers in Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, the
Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Iran, and Cuba.
Farmers using this method also have more time to spend with their
family or doing other things. It has been estimated that manual weeding
of paddies requires about 240 hours of labor per hectare every year. (1)

28. The Aigamo farming method does not bring back the lost forests BUT, one has to
admit, it is much more favorable to a raped, clear-cut field or a chemically laden
monocrop situation. I think there is a “closed loop” system that is appropriate for
human adaptation in each of the biomes. There is a way humans CAN live in
harmony with nature. The Big Ag and chemical companies may not prosper from
this, but haven’t they profited and damaged enough?