Taiga (Biomes of the Earth)

Taiga is a biome of the Northern Hemisphere, between tundra to the north and broad-leaved forest and temperate grassland to the south. Taiga includes dense forest, open forest, and jigsaw puzzles of forests, wetlands, and lakes that can be found in northwestern and northeastern America, northern Europe, Siberia, and East Asia. Examining its geography, geology, climate, and biodiversity, "Taiga" describes this unique ecosystem in a clear, complete manner. Human uses of taiga date back thousands of years to Eurasian hunters and fishers crossing the Bering land bridge into present-day North America. Today, hunting, logging, and mining are a few of the ways this habitat is used. Threats resulting from this development include overharvesting from hunting and logging, clear-felling, and the spread of agriculture. This volume also examines ways of managing taiga, including the movement to conserve taiga habitats through the creation of reservations and sanctuaries.