SnowForest

Winter is in many ways the defining season of the Boreal Forest, which is also sometimes
called the "Snow Forest". The stresses of the long severe winters typical in the Boreal Forest
ecosystem shape the land, the plants, animals and even the cultures of the people that live there.

The trees of the Boreal Forest have had to adapt to the short growing season and heavy snow
loads. This is a main reason why conifers predominate. Their conical shape minimizes the
structural stress that snow can create, their needles minimize heat and moisture loss while
providing instant photosynthetic ability when spring arrives without waiting for new leaves to
develop.

Animals tend to be larger in the northern portions of their ranges (Bergman's Rule - both John
Pitcher and Rob Mullen noticed this about the black bears along the George River compared to bears in
Vermont. In turn, the bears Rob saw while living in the San Bernardino Mtns of California were
smaller still )but with relatively smaller extremities (Allen's Rule). Both of these trends have the
effect of conserving heat in the body core since the skin surface area relative to body mass
decreases as an animal increases in size leaving more tissue to generate heat with
correspondingly less surface area to radiate it away and smaller noses, ears and appendages
radiate less heat as well. There is debate about the mechanisms and even the validity of these
"rules" and you could fill a bestiary with the exceptions. However, it is easy to imagine that
natural selection would favor such heat conserving traits and that the exceptions are the result of
natural selection's continuous cost/benefit analysis of a complex panoply of competing concerns
and the limitations inherent in the evolutionary history of various organisms.

While humans show some adherence to Bergman's rule it is technological innovation that has
most enabled cultures to thrive for thousands of years in these harsh conditions.