Climate
This subarctic zone experiences cool summers that are short, with at least 24 hours of full daylight a year in its most northern reaches, and winters that are extremely cold and long, with at least one 24-hour period of complete darkness. Precipitation ranges from 250 to 500 mm (10-20 in.) annually throughout the zone, except in Labrador which may receive up to 800 mm (31 in.) along its coast, and typically increases from west to east.
The shallow soils remain damp, even soggy, year-round, and regularly freeze and thaw without drainage. This leads to shifting soil that randomly tilts growing trees, which has been likened to a "drunken forest".
Read more about this topic: Taiga Shield Ecozone (CEC)
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Certainly parents play a crucial role in the lives of individuals who are intellectually gifted or creatively talented. But this role is not one of active instruction, of teaching children skills,... rather, it is support and encouragement parents give children and the intellectual climate that they create in the home which seem to be the critical factors.”
—David Elkind (20th century)