Trees and plants in deciduous forests have special adaptations to survive in this biome. Deciduous trees are trees with leaves rather than pine needles, and they dominate temperate forests. As the seasons change each year, so do the leaves. Each year deciduous trees loose their leaves, and grow them back. In the summer their broad green leaves capture sunlight and help the trees make food through photosynthesis. As temperatures cool in the fall, the chlorophyll (green pigment in leaves) breaks down, causing the beautiful red, yellow and orange leaf colors of fall. In the cold winter, deciduous trees and plants go into dormancy, kind of like sleep. It is too cold for them to protect their leaves from the damage of freezing in the winter, so they simply loose them and seal up the places where the leaves attach to the branch. The warmer spring days signal to the trees that they can grow new leaves again, and restart the cycle.