Deciduous Forest

            In forests, there can be a wide range of variability in temperature and precipitation. During rain season, deciduous trees mix with species of evergreen. These forests are characterized by four layers: a canopy composed of mature full-sized dominant species and a slightly lower layer of mature trees, a shrub layer, and an understory layer of grasses and other herbaceous plants. Most dominant species have widespread distributions, but in many ecoregions, there can be a large number of ecoregional and local endemics. Altitudinal specialization occurs but is less pronounced than in the tropics. The minimum requirements for deciduous forests are larger animals, disturbance events, many species of lichen, fungi, and invertebrates depend upon late successional forests. These forests have sensitivity to noises like birds singing and all these other loud animals. In this habitat are ecoregions, such as Australia, Indo-Malayan, Nearctic, and Palearctic. There are many forests in these ecoregions. These forests can be very beautiful. I wish my town had forests. It would be great to have forests in my town so kids could play hide and seek. Anyways, it would be good to have forests in St. Paul Island, Alaska.

Resources: Science class