Hobbies And Interests
Shading
While deciduous trees lose their leaves in the dormant season, winter, conifers that retain green foliage all year shade their surroundings in winter. The lower sunlight levels translate to a cooling effect. The combination of lower sunlight and cooler conditions on the ground, and even in the air above the ground, affect organisms that live and grow under the conifers. Low-growing plants, for example, that begin their growing season in spring before deciduous trees produce leaves may be at a disadvantage in the shade of evergreen coniferous trees.
Competition
Coniferous trees compete with other plants for light and other resources. Low-growing plants can be shrubs or small herbaceous plants, but they also can be tree seedlings and saplings, including conifers. Dominant conifers can shade out competitors. Plants vary along a wide spectrum in their shade tolerance. Some tree species tolerate little or no shade without perishing while others grow in fairly dense shade and survive or even thrive. Coniferous trees, just by virtue of their growth, can exert a lot of control over other vegetation.
Habitat
Coniferous trees, like trees in general, provide habitat for many kinds of birds and other wildlife. The red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is just one example of a wildlife species that relies fairly heavily on coniferous trees. Red squirrels can occupy a range of forest habitats and consume a variety of foods. They tend to favor coniferous trees, however, for feeding and nesting. A red squirrel often perches on a conifer branch and works its way through a cone in a way that is reminiscent of a human eating corn on the cob. The squirrel is after the seeds nestled in among the cone scales.
Forest Products
In the broadest sense, human usage of coniferous trees has a definite effect on the ecology. Human demand for trees for a multitude of uses has a long history, and certain coniferous trees ̵2; especially the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), a conifer native to the western United States ̵2; serve human needs to a high degree. Douglas fir, which is hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 6, is the tree of choice for a great deal of the wooden structural framing materials used in building homes. Douglas fir growth, harvesting and subsequent regrowth affect the more natural ecology and human ecology and the economy. Conifer logging in the western United States has not been without its controversy, both ecologically and economically.
Fire
Many conifers are adapted to withstand fire and even actually to benefit from it. Some coniferous trees can have what botanists and foresters call serotinous cones. Serotinous cones remain tightly closed, sometimes for years, and then open and release their seeds only when stimulated by the intense heat from a fire. In the fire̵7;s aftermath, conifers produced from these cones may be among the first plants to colonize the newly disturbed landscape.