OTHER AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES

• Amongst the food crops, potatoesfeature prominently in the domestic economy of the cool temperate regions.
• It is the staple food in supplementing wheat or bread for millions of people.
• In terms of starch, potato yields far more food than any cereals and can be cultivated over a wide range of climatic and soil types.
• Today almost two-thirds of the world’s annual production of potatoes comes from Europe, of which Poland, Germany, France and UK are the major producers.

BEET SUGAR  

• Found almost exclusively in north-western Europe (including European Russia) and parts of U.S.A.
• The need for such a crop was greatly felt during the Napoleonic Wars around 1800 when military blockades caused a scarcity of sugar.
• The beet is crushed for sugar and the green tops are used as animal fodder.
• The crop thrives best in the warmer and drier east of Britain and in mainland Europe. The highest sugar yield is obtained when the autumn is both dry and sunny.

TAIGA CLIMATE | CONIFEROUS FORESTS & LUMBERING

Boreal Climate OR Taiga Climate OR Siberian Climate OR Cool Temperate Continental Climate OR Continental Sub-Polar Climate.

• Found onlyin the northern hemisphere [due to great east-west extent. Absent in the southern hemisphere because of the narrowness in the high latitudes].
• Experienced in the regions just below Arctic circle.
• On its poleward side, it merges into the Arctic tundra.
• The climate fades into the temperate Steppe climate.

DISTRIBUTION

• It stretches along a continuous belt across central Canada, some parts of Scandinavian Europeand most of central and southern Russian. [50° to 70° N]

ABSENT IN SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

• Narrowness of the southern continents in the high latitudes is the main reason.
• The strong oceanic influencereduces the severity of the winter.
• Coniferous forests are found only on the mountainous uplands of southern Chile, New Zealand, Tasmania, and south-east Australia.

TAIGA CLIMATE

TEMPERATURE

• Summers are brief and warm reaching 20-25 °C whereas winters are long and brutally cold – always 30-40 °C below freezing.
• Annual temperature range of the Siberian Climate is the greatest [Almost 50-60 °C in Siberia].
• Some of the lowest temperatures in the world are recorded in Verkhoyansk(68°N. 113°E) where -67 °C was once recorded.
• In North America, the extremes are less severe, because of the continent’s lesser east-west stretch.
• All over Russia, nearly all the rivers are frozen. In normal years, the Volga is ice-covered for about 150 days.
• Occasionally cold, northerly polar local winds such as the blizzards of Canadaand buran of Eurasia blow violently.
• Permafrost’s [a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains below freezing point throughout the year] are generally absent as snow is a poor conductor of heatand protects the ground from the severe cold above.

PRECIPITATION

• Maritime influence in the interiors is absent.
• Frontal disturbances might occur in winter.
• Typical annual precipitation ranges from 38 cm to 63 cm.
• It is quite well distributed throughout the year, with a summer maximum[convectional rain in mid-summer – 15 °C to 24 °C]
• In winter the precipitation is in the form of snow, as mean temperatures are well below freezing all the time.

NATURAL VEGETATION OF TAIGA CLIMATE

• The predominant vegetation is evergreen coniferous forest.
• The conifers, which require little moisture are best suited to this type of sub-Arctic climate.
• The greatest single band of the coniferous forest is the taiga (a Russian word for coniferous forest) in Siberia.
• In Europe the countries that have a similar type of climate and forests are Sweden and Finland.
• There are small amounts of natural coniferous forest in Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, and other parts of Europe.
• In North America, the belt stretches from Alaskaacross Canada into Labrador.