deciduous

Examples of deciduous in the following topics:

• Temperate Forests

  • Because of the moderate, annual rainfall and temperatures, deciduous trees are the dominant plant in this biome .
  • Deciduous trees lose their leaves each fall, remaining leafless in the winter; thus, no photosynthesis occurs during the dormant winter period.
  • Many well-known animals are found in temperate deciduous forests including squirrels, deer , and bears.
  • The top predators in deciduous forest were once wolves and cougars, but their populations have been in decline.
  • Deciduous trees, those that lose their leaves seasonally, are the dominant plant in the temperate forest.

• Boreal Forests and Arctic Tundra

  • Evergreen trees can photosynthesize earlier in the spring than can deciduous trees because less energy from the sun is required to warm a needle-like leaf than a broad leaf.
  • This benefits evergreen trees, which grow faster than deciduous trees in the boreal forest.
  • Leaves are a nitrogen-rich structure that deciduous trees must produce yearly.
  • Therefore, coniferous trees that retain nitrogen-rich needles may have a competitive advantage over the broad-leafed deciduous trees.

• Diversity of Gymnosperms

  • A few species are deciduous, losing their leaves in fall.
  • The European larch and the tamarack are examples of deciduous conifers.
  • Shown here are the (a) evergreen spruce Picea sp., (b) juniper Juniperus sp., (c) sequoia Sequoia Semervirens, which is a deciduous gymnosperm, and (d) the tamarack Larix larcinia.

• Biogeography

  • Eventually, grasslands are replaced by deciduous temperate forests.
  • These deciduous forests give way to the boreal forests found in the subarctic, the area south of the Arctic Circle.

• Tropical Wet Forest and Savannas

  • Unlike the trees of deciduous forests, the trees in this biome do not have a seasonal loss of leaves associated with variations in temperature and sunlight; these forests are "evergreen" year-round.

• Characteristics of Mammals

  • Most mammals are diphyodonts, meaning that they have two sets of teeth in their lifetime: deciduous, or "baby" teeth, and permanent teeth.