Adaptations to A Temperate Deciduous Forest Biome

deciduous forest food chains
The picture shows a food web in a temperate deciduous forest.

The Temperate Deciduous Forest biome has four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. Animals and plants have special adaptations to cope with these yearly changes.

Plant adaptations

Deciduous trees are trees that shed their leaves once a year at the approach of a cold or dry season and later grow new leaves. (Plants that keep their foliage throughout the year are called evergreens.) Deciduous trees usually have broad leaves e.g., ash, beech, birch, maple and oak.

  • In SUMMER, their broad green leaves help capture sunlight needed to make food through photosynthesis.

  • As temperatures drop, the tree cuts off the supply of water to the leaves and seals off the area between the leaf stem and the tree trunk. With limited sunlight and water, the leaves are unable to continue producing chlorophyll (green pigment in leaves) causing them to change into the beautiful red, yellow and orange leaf colours of FALL.

  • In WINTER, it is too cold for the trees to protect their leaves from freezing, so they simply loose them and seal up the places where the leaves attach to the branch. Losing their leaves helps trees to conserve water loss through transpiration. (Dried leaves continue to hang on the branches of some deciduous trees until the new leaves come out.)

    Before the leaves die, some of the food material they contain is drawn back into the twigs and branches where it is stored and used the following spring.

  • The warmer temperatures of SPRING signal to the trees that they can grow new leaves again, and restart the cycle.
Animal adaptations

Animals in temperate deciduous forests also have to adapt to the changing seasons. They must be able to cope with cold winters when food is in short supply. Migration and hibernation are two adaptations used by the animals in this biome.


  • Some mammals (e.g., bears) hibernate during the cold winter months.


Interactive Assessment Worksheets © by Alan & Hui Meng   |   World Biomes (forest, grassland, tundra & desert)