taiga - What does it mean?

Noun

(en-noun)

A subarctic zone of evergreen coniferous forests situated south of the tundras and north of the steppes in the Northern Hemisphere.

* 2004 , (Richard Fortey), The Earth , Folio Society 2011, p. 197:

The mountains run from the Arctic Island of Novaya Zemlya southwards, dividing the endless wastes of the Siberian taiga and the steppes from the Russian platform in the west.

* 2006 , (Thomas Pynchon), Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 871:

Like the taiga , he was everywhere, and mysterious—a heroic being with unearthly gifts.

*{{quote-magazine|date=2013-03

|author=Nancy Langston |title=Mining the Boreal North |volume=101|issue=2|page=98 |magazine= citation |passage=Reindeer are well suited to the taiga ’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.}}