the.com/taiga
Earth's biggest forest, basically one long shiver of pine from Siberia to Canada.
means The vast belt of coniferous forest—mostly spruce, pine, and fir—that circles the far north just below the Arctic tundra.
from Borrowed into English from Russian тайга (taiga), itself likely drawn from a Turkic or Mongolic language of Siberia where it meant something like 'rocky, mountainous forest' or just 'forest.' The word rode west with Russian explorers and naturalists mapping Siberia's endless conifers, and by the 19th-early 20th century it had settled into English and other languages as the name for this entire circumpolar biome — one word stretched as wide as the forest it describes.
- land share
- covers about 11 percent of Earth's land
- tree type
- mostly conifers that laugh at -40 degrees
- carbon vault
- stores more carbon than the tropics, per acre
- wildlife
- home to wolves, moose, and very patient owls