Boreal Kingdom

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Juniperus communis on Luneburg Heath in Germany Luneburger Heide 006.jpg
Juniperus communis on Lüneburg Heath in Germany

The Boreal Kingdom or Holarctic Kingdom (Holarctis) is a floristic kingdom identified[ when? ] by botanist Ronald Good (and later by Armen Takhtajan), which includes the temperate to Arctic portions of North America and Eurasia. Its flora is inherited from the ancient supercontinent of Laurasia. However, parts of the floristic kingdom (and most of its Circumboreal Region) were glaciated during the Pleistocene and as a consequence have a very young flora. Cenozoic relicts found refuge in the southern and mountainous parts of the kingdom, especially in the Eastern Asiatic Region and southern North American Atlantic Region.

Contents

Good noted that many plant species of temperate North America and Eurasia were very closely related, despite their separation by the Atlantic Ocean and the Bering Strait.

Millions of years ago, before the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, North America and Eurasia were joined as a single continent, Laurasia. After the opening of the Atlantic, the continents were connected to one another periodically via land bridges linking Alaska and Siberia. Until a few million years ago, the global climate was warmer than at present, especially at higher latitudes, and many temperate climate species were distributed across North America and Eurasia via Alaska and Siberia. The sharply cooler climate of the past few million years eliminated a temperate-zone connection between North America and Eurasia, but common Laurasian origins and a long history of temperate-climate land bridges account for the botanical similarities between the temperate floras on the two continents.

A floristic kingdom is the botanical analogue to an biogeographic realm, which takes into account the distribution of animal as well as plant species. Many biogeographers distinguish the Boreal Kingdom as comprising two realms, the Nearctic (North America) and Palearctic (North Africa and Eurasia). Others, based on the distribution of related plant and animal families, include the Palearctic and Nearctic in a single Holarctic realm, which corresponds to Good's Boreal Kingdom.

Flora

Rhododendron tomentosum Rhododendron-palustre.JPG
Rhododendron tomentosum

According to Takhtajan (1978), the following families are endemic to this kingdom: Ginkgoaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, Glaucidiaceae, Hydrastidaceae ( Hydrastis ), Trochodendraceae, Tetracentraceae, Cercidiphyllaceae, Euptelaceae ( Euptelea ), Platanaceae, Eucommiaceae, Rhoipteleaceae, Leitneriaceae, Paeoniaceae, Crossosomataceae, Stachyuraceae, Fouquieriaceae, Diapensiaceae, Simmondsiaceae, Pterostemonaceae, Penthoraceae, Bretschneideraceae, Limnanthaceae, Davidiaceae ( Davidia ), Toricelliaceae, Helwingiaceae, Theligonaceae, Dipentodontaceae, Cynomoriaceae, Adoxaceae, Trapellaceae ( Trapella ), Butomaceae, Scheuchzeriaceae, Aphyllanthaceae. [1] [2]

According to the same author, the following families are well represented: Magnoliaceae, Lauraceae, Ranunculaceae, Berberidaceae, Hamamelidaceae, Fagaceae, Betulaceae, Juglandaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Polygonaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Theaceae, Salicaceae, Brassicaceae, Ericaceae, Primulaceae, Malvaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Thymelaeaceae, Rosaceae, Fabaceae, Cornaceae, Araliaceae, Apiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Gentianaceae, Boraginaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Lamiaceae, Campanulaceae, Asteraceae, Liliaceae, Iridaceae, Orchidaceae, Juncaceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Pinaceae, Cupressaceae, Aspleniaceae, Polypodiaceae.

Subdivisions

The kingdom is subdivided into three floristic subkingdoms and nine floristic regions.

Boreal Subkingdom

Tethyan Subkingdom

Madrean Floristic Region

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nearctic realm</span> Biogeographic realm encompassing temperate North America

The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neotropical realm</span> One of Earths eight biogeographic realms

The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biogeographic realm</span> Broadest biogeographic division of Earths land surface

A biogeographic realm is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. A biogeographic realm is also known as "ecozone", although that term may also refer to ecoregions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palearctic realm</span> Biogeographic realm covering most of Eurasia

The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.

A phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap. The region of overlap is called a vegetation tension zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holarctic realm</span> Biogeographic realm

The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region, and Alfred Wallace's Palearctic zoogeographical region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediterranean Basin</span> Region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate

In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin, also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea, is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. It was a very important part of Mediterranean civilizations.

The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) is a biogeographical system developed by the international Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) organization, formerly the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. The WGSRPD standards, like other standards for data fields in botanical databases, were developed to promote "the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large". The system provides clear definitions and codes for recording plant distributions at four scales or levels, from "botanical continents" down to parts of large countries. The codes may be referred to as TDWG geographical codes. Current users of the system include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), and Plants of the World Online (POWO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Atlantic Region</span> Floristic region in the Holarctic kingdom

The North American Atlantic Region is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom identified by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne, spanning from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to the Great Plains and comprising a major part of the United States and southeastern portions of Canada. It is bordered by the Circumboreal floristic region in the north, by the Rocky Mountain and Madrean floristic regions in the west and by the Caribbean floristic region of the Neotropical Kingdom in the south of Florida. The flora of the region comprises two endemic monotypic families, Hydrastidaceae and Leitneriaceae, and is characterized by about a hundred of endemic genera. The degree of species endemism is very high, many species are Tertiary relicts, which survived the Wisconsin glaciation and are now concentrated in the Appalachians and the Ozarks. A number of genera are shared only with the Canadian floristic province of the Circumboreal region. Moreover, as has long been noted, a large number of relict genera are shared with the relatively distant Eastern Asiatic Region and sometimes Southeast Asia. R. F. Thorne counted at least 74 genera restricted to eastern North America and Asia. The fossil record indicates that during the Tertiary period a warm temperate zone extended across much of the Northern Hemisphere, linking America to Asia.

The native flora of the United States includes about 17,000 species of vascular plants, plus tens of thousands of additional species of other plants and plant-like organisms such as algae, lichens and other fungi, and mosses. About 3,800 additional non-native species of vascular plants are recorded as established outside of cultivation in the U.S., as well as a much smaller number of non-native non-vascular plants and plant relatives. The United States possesses one of the most diverse temperate floras in the world, comparable only to that of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctic Floristic Kingdom</span> Geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species in the Antarctic

The Antarctic Floristic Kingdom, also the Holantarctic Kingdom, is a floristic kingdom that includes most areas of the world south of 40°S latitude. It was first identified by botanist Ronald Good, and later by Armen Takhtajan. The Antarctic Floristic Kingdom is a classification in phytogeography, different from the Antarctic realm classification in biogeography, and from Antarctic flora genera/species classifications in botany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Asiatic Region</span> Floristic region in East Asia

The Eastern Asiatic Region is the richest floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom and situated in temperate East Asia. It has been recognized as a natural floristic area since 1872 August Grisebach's volume Die Vegetation der Erde and later delineated by such geobotanists as Ludwig Diels, Adolf Engler, Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocky Mountain Floristic Region</span>

The Rocky Mountain Floristic Region is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in western North America delineated by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne. The region extends from Kodiak Island in Alaska to the San Francisco Bay Area and Sierra Nevada in California. It consists of two provinces, the Vancouverian, which comprises the coastal part of the region for its entire length, including the Pacific Coast Ranges, and the Rocky Mountain, which includes the Rocky Mountains and associated ranges. There are no endemic plant families in the region but many endemic genera and species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madrean Region</span> Floristic region in the Holarctic Kingdom

The Madrean Region is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in North America, as delineated by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne. It occupies arid or semiarid areas in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico and is bordered by the Rocky Mountain Floristic Region and North American Atlantic Region of the Holarctic Kingdom in the north and in the east, Caribbean Region of the Neotropical Kingdom in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circumboreal Region</span> Floristic region in Eurasia and North America

The Circumboreal Region in phytogeography is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in Eurasia and North America, as delineated by such geobotanists as Josias Braun-Blanquet and Armen Takhtajan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleotropical Kingdom</span> One of the Earths six floristic kingdoms

The Paleotropical Kingdom (Paleotropis) is a floristic kingdom composed of the tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Oceania, as proposed by Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan. Part of its flora is inherited from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana or exchanged later. These Gondwanan lineages are related to those in the Neotropical Kingdom, composed of the tropical areas of Central and South America. Flora from the Paleotropical Kingdom influenced the tropical flora of the Australian Kingdom. The kingdom is subdivided into five floristic subkingdoms according to Takhtajan and about 13 floristic regions. In this article the floristic subkingdoms and regions are given as delineated by Takhtajan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of Asia</span>

All of the animals living in Asia and its surrounding seas and islands are considered the fauna of Asia. Since there is no natural biogeographic boundary in the west between Europe and Asia, the term "fauna of Asia" is somewhat elusive. Temperate Asia is the eastern part of the Palearctic realm, and its south-eastern part belongs to the Indomalayan realm. Asia shows a notable diversity of habitats, with significant variations in rainfall, altitude, topography, temperature and geological history, which is reflected in its richness and diversity of animal life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balkan mixed forests</span> Terrestrial ecoregion of Europe

The Balkan mixed forests are a terrestrial ecoregion of southeastern Europe according to both the WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency. It belongs in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome and the Palearctic realm.

Estonia is a small, heavily forested country situated on the Baltic Sea. It is a part of the Euro-Siberian region of terrestrial Palearctic realm, and the Temperate Northern Atlantic marine ecoregion.

References

  1. Тахтаджян А. Л. Флористические области Земли / Академия наук СССР. Ботанический институт им. В. Л. Комарова. — Л.: Наука, Ленинградское отделение, 1978. — 247 с. — 4000 экз. DjVu Archived 2018-10-05 at the Wayback Machine , Google Books.
  2. Takhtajan, A. (1986). Floristic Regions of the World. (translated by T.J. Crovello & A. Cronquist). University of California Press, Berkeley, .