The taiga, or boreal forest, is the vast northern forest of conifers and birch that circles the far north of Eurasia and North America, between the tundra and the temperate forests and steppes.

Why are most taiga trees conifers?

Their needles are tough, waxy and kept all year, so they lose little water and can photosynthesise whenever conditions allow. Their conical shape sheds snow, and they harden in autumn to survive deep frost.

What animals live in the taiga?

Moose, reindeer and other deer, brown bears, lynx, wolves, wolverines, hares and squirrels, along with birds such as the capercaillie, woodpeckers, owls and, in summer, the cuckoo.

Why is the taiga important for the climate?

It stores a huge amount of carbon in its trees, soils and peat. Logging, fire and thawing ground can release that carbon, so protecting the forest helps limit climate change.

Can I explore the taiga in the app?

Yes. You can land in a boreal forest modelled on Karelia and wander among spruce, pine and birch, moss, berries, mushrooms and glacial boulders in interactive 3D.

Dark spruce, sunlit pine and a carpet of moss and berries across the top of the world

Taiga (boreal forest)

3D landscape · Karelian taiga, eastern Finland

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The taiga is the great northern forest that stretches across Scandinavia, Finland, Russia, Alaska and Canada, between the treeless tundra to the north and the mixed forests and steppes further south. It is often described as Earth's largest land biome. Most of its trees are conifers such as spruce, pine, fir and larch, mixed with birch, aspen and willow. In this app you can land in a boreal forest modelled on Karelia, on the border of Finland and Russia, and explore it in interactive 3D: drooping Norway spruce, tall Scots pine, white birch trunks, glacial boulders and a soft floor of moss, blueberry and lingonberry.

Life in the taiga is a race against the cold. Winters are long, dark and snowy, while summers are short but bright, with very long days. The forest floor is rich in mosses, lichens, berries and fungi, and the forest is home to moose, deer, bears, lynx and many birds. The taiga also locks away an enormous amount of carbon in its trees, soils and peat, which makes its future important for the climate of the whole planet.

Key facts

Model setting: Karelia, Finland and RussiaSpruce, pine and birch forest with moss, berries and glacial boulders
Other name: Boreal forestFrom Boreas, the ancient Greek god of the north wind
Where: Roughly 50–70° northAcross northern Eurasia and North America; the belt's edges vary with climate
Size: Often called the largest land biomeCommonly estimated at around a tenth of Earth's land surface
Growing season: About 3–5 monthsShorter in the far north; frost can come in any month
Main trees: Spruce, pine, larch, fir, birchWhich dominate depends on region, soil and fire history
Typical soil: PodzolAcidic, leached soil with a pale ash-grey layer beneath the moss
Largest deer: MooseCalled elk in Britain and much of Europe
Carbon store: Among the largest on landMuch of it held in cold soils and peat rather than in the trees

Where the taiga is

The boreal forest forms an almost unbroken ring around the Northern Hemisphere. In Europe it covers much of Norway, Sweden and Finland and continues across Russia, where Siberia holds the largest continuous stretch of forest on Earth. In North America it runs from Alaska across Canada to Newfoundland.

To the north, the trees become smaller and sparser until they give way to tundra at the tree line. To the south, the taiga blends into mixed forests of broadleaved trees, or into grassland and steppe in drier regions. Much of today's taiga grows on land that was buried under ice sheets during the last ice age. In Finland and Karelia the ice melted roughly 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, leaving behind scraped bedrock, lakes, gravel ridges and scattered boulders that the forest then slowly reclaimed.

Climate and the short growing season

The taiga has a subarctic climate with long, cold winters and short, mild summers. In Finland and Karelia winter temperatures often fall to −20°C or lower, while in the continental interior of Siberia they can plunge below −40°C and occasionally much further. Snow covers the ground for half the year or more in many places. Summers can be surprisingly warm, sometimes reaching 25–30°C, and near midsummer the days are very long.

The growing season, when it is warm enough for plants to grow, lasts only about three to five months, and less in the far north. Precipitation is modest, often a few hundred millimetres a year, but cool temperatures mean little water evaporates, so the ground stays damp and boggy in many places.

Why conifers dominate

Conifers are well suited to the northern climate. Most keep their needles all year, so they can start photosynthesising as soon as spring sunshine and temperatures allow, without the cost of growing a whole new set of leaves. Needles are narrow, with a waxy coating and sunken pores that reduce water loss, which matters in winter when water in the soil is frozen and cannot be taken up.

The classic conical shape of spruce and fir, with flexible branches that slope downwards, helps snow slide off rather than piling up and snapping limbs. Northern trees also harden in autumn: they move water out of their cells and build up sugars and other protective compounds that act rather like antifreeze, allowing their tissues to survive temperatures far below freezing without being destroyed by ice crystals.

The exception: larch

Larches are conifers that drop all their needles in autumn, turning gold first. Shedding needles lets them survive the most extreme cold of eastern Siberia, where larch forests grow over permafrost and form some of the most northerly forests in the world.

The main trees

In Fennoscandia and Karelia the forest is built mainly from three trees. Norway spruce grows in the richer, moister soils and forms dark, shady stands, with long branches that droop and curtain-like side shoots. Scots pine prefers dry, sandy ground and rocky ridges; old pines have tall, straight trunks with orange-red bark near the top and thick, plated bark below. Silver and downy birch are quick to colonise open ground after fire, storms or felling, and their white trunks brighten the forest.

Elsewhere other species take over. Siberia has vast forests of larch and Siberian pine, along with fir. In North America, black and white spruce, balsam fir, jack pine, tamarack and trembling aspen are common.

Soils, peat bogs and fire

Taiga soils are typically podzols, a name that comes from Russian words meaning roughly under ash. Fallen needles decompose slowly in the cold and make the soil acidic. Rain and meltwater wash iron, aluminium and nutrients down from the upper soil, leaving a bleached, ash-grey layer beneath the moss and humus, with a rusty brown layer below where the washed-out minerals collect. These poor soils favour plants that tolerate acidity, such as blueberry, lingonberry, heather and many mosses.

Where water cannot drain away, peat builds up as dead sphagnum moss and other plants accumulate faster than they rot. Bogs and mires are a major part of the boreal landscape; in Finland, peatlands originally covered roughly a third of the land, though much has been drained for forestry and farming. Fire is the other great shaper of the taiga. Lightning-sparked fires have burned through boreal forests for thousands of years. Thick-barked Scots pines can survive ground fires, and birch and aspen sprout back quickly. Because natural fires are now largely suppressed in Fennoscandia, conservationists in Finland and Sweden carry out controlled burns to restore habitats for fire-dependent species.

Fungi, animals and the forest's future

Below ground, almost every taiga tree is linked to fungi through mycorrhiza, a partnership in which fungal threads wrap around the tree's fine roots and extend far into the soil. The fungi help the tree take up water, nitrogen and phosphorus, and in return receive sugars from the tree. The mushrooms that appear in late summer and autumn are the fruiting bodies of these networks: red-and-white fly agarics, which are poisonous, often grow with birch and spruce, while prized ceps, or porcini, grow with spruce and pine. In Finland, everyman's right lets people pick berries and mushrooms in most forests.

The taiga's animals are adapted to cold and snow. Moose browse on young trees and water plants, reindeer dig through snow for lichen, and deer such as roe deer, and in Finland the introduced white-tailed deer, live along the forest edges. Brown bears, Finland's national animal, sleep through the winter in dens, while lynx hunt hares and deer on broad, furry paws. Capercaillie, the giant forest grouse, gather at spring leks; black woodpeckers hammer out nest holes later used by owls and ducks; and the call of the cuckoo, which lays its eggs in other birds' nests, is a sound of the northern spring.

The boreal forest stores a vast amount of carbon, much of it in cold soils, peat and permafrost rather than in the trees. Logging, including intensive commercial forestry in Fennoscandia, Russia and Canada, has replaced much old-growth forest with younger, more uniform stands. Climate change is warming high latitudes faster than the global average, bringing larger and more frequent fires, insect outbreaks and thawing permafrost. Scientists expect the forest to creep north into the tundra while its southern edge comes under stress, though how fast and how far is still uncertain.

Surprising facts about Taiga (boreal forest)

Larches are conifers that lose all their needles every autumn, which helps them survive some of the coldest places on Earth.
The pale grey layer under the moss in a taiga forest gives podzol soils their name, from Russian words meaning roughly under ash.
Most of the taiga's carbon is stored not in the trees but in the cold soils and peat beneath them.
The mushrooms of the forest floor are just the fruit of huge underground fungal networks attached to tree roots.
Some northern conifers can survive being frozen at temperatures well below −40°C.
Finnish conservationists deliberately set controlled fires to help species that depend on burned forest.

Frequently asked questions

What is the taiga?: The taiga, or boreal forest, is the vast northern forest of conifers and birch that circles the far north of Eurasia and North America, between the tundra and the temperate forests and steppes.
Why are most taiga trees conifers?: Their needles are tough, waxy and kept all year, so they lose little water and can photosynthesise whenever conditions allow. Their conical shape sheds snow, and they harden in autumn to survive deep frost.
What animals live in the taiga?: Moose, reindeer and other deer, brown bears, lynx, wolves, wolverines, hares and squirrels, along with birds such as the capercaillie, woodpeckers, owls and, in summer, the cuckoo.
Why is the taiga important for the climate?: It stores a huge amount of carbon in its trees, soils and peat. Logging, fire and thawing ground can release that carbon, so protecting the forest helps limit climate change.
Can I explore the taiga in the app?: Yes. You can land in a boreal forest modelled on Karelia and wander among spruce, pine and birch, moss, berries, mushrooms and glacial boulders in interactive 3D.

Keep exploring

The landscapes in Ember’s Universe are procedural 3D scenes modelled on real places. The landforms, plants and light follow the real thing, but the details are generated, not mapped.

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