Why do deciduous trees shed their leaves?
The leaves of deciduous trees are broad and quite light. This gives the leaves a bigger surface to capture sunlight to help produce food for the plant. This is called photosynthesis (say photo-sin-th-essis). However, broad leaves are not good when the weather gets cold, as they lose too much moisture and get damaged. So the cooler autum temperatures are a signal to the trees to cut off the water supply to the leaves and seal off leaf stems where they join onto the tree trunks. The leaves are not able to produce the chlorophyll (say claw-roe-fill) that makes them green. The leaves become yellow, red or gold before they dry up and fall off the trees. The leaves decay on the ground and make the soil very fertile. Where are deciduous forests found? This biome is located between the polar regions and the tropics, so large air masses from both cold and warm areas of the Earth affect the climate. Deciduous forests are found in the eastern part of the USA and large areas of Europe. There are f
