Biomes: Taiga

Known as the boreal forest, the taiga biome is the largest biome in the world as it occupies about 17% of the Earth's land surface ( Juday, 2019). This biome can be seen in several parts of Europe, Asia and North America. This biome is also found at high elevations with cool temperatures in the more temperate latitudes, such as the mountainous regions of North America.

The taiga biome is generally very cold, with subarctic and cold continental climate. The biome had long harsh winters lasting up to six months and temperatures frequently below freezing with the average annual temperature is 0.3 °C in Russia, a taiga region. Precipitation is very minimal in this biome with the average annual rainfall is 600 mm in the same taiga region in Russia (Climate Data, 2019).

In terms of growing food, the taiga biome would not be very suitable. The climate, pattern of seasons and soil quality would not be very allowing for successful agriculture. As stated earlier, the climate of the biome is regularly very cold with very minimal precipitation. This would have an impact on agriculture within the biome as it is unlikely that much vegetation would be able to thrive in such conditions. The taiga biome also has a short growing season putting a limit on what foods can be grown there as some foods require longer periods of growth. In addition to this, the soil quality of the taiga biome is known to be poor and lacking in nutrients so, growing food in an area of poor soil quality would be futile.

References

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