3
BIotic Factors of the COniferous
The
BEAUTIFUL
Northwest
By Brent Xiao
The northwestern coniferous is located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. The area of and around the forest is usually cold. This factor contributes to the way animals and plants live and interact with each other. The forest’s greenery consists of mainly coniferous trees, as the title of the forest suggests. The tree’s needles are dark colored, which allows it to absorb more heat. The dense layers of needles created by the trees form an insulator and cause the air and environment underneath to be quiet and still. The Sitka Spruce is an insulator between the coast and inland and dominates the more exposed areas of the forest since they are very salt and wind tolerant. The Tanoak oak tree is similar to other evergreens of the area and like sunlight and space, but they can tolerant living below taller coniferous trees if it is what they must do to survive.
Animals can range from tiny shrews to huge thousand pound elks. Many ground animals such as rodent like creatures called voles build nests on limbs of trees, away from predators. There are large varieties of carnivores that live here because of the diverse creatures. They include bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, black bears, foxes, and many more. These animals are also a big attraction to the guests who visit the forest each year. Beavers have also been found in the creeks of the area, thanks to the nice building materials for their
dams. They are known to annoy road workings by plugging drainage systems with their sticks.
The forests also contain lots of birds. There are flycatchers, warblers, thrushes, jays, woodpeckers, and owls. The marbled murrelet is an endangered bird living in the area, and its active before the sun comes out. These birds nest high in the coniferous trees, but historically used to be seabirds before living in the forest. They have still have seabird colors even after adapting to forest life, but when it’s breeding season, they become reddish and brown.
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