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Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests | |
---|---|
Ecology | |
Realm | Nearctic |
Biome | Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests |
Borders | |
Bird species | 191 [1] |
Mammal species | 46 [1] |
Geography | |
Area | 39,368 km2 (15,200 sq mi) |
Country | Canada |
Provinces | |
Conservation | |
Habitat loss | 4.5% [1] |
Protected | 2.9% [1] |
The Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of Eastern Canada, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system. [2]
Located on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, this ecoregion covers all of Prince Edward Island, the Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine of Quebec, most of east-central New Brunswick, the Annapolis Valley, Minas Basin and the Northumberland Strait coast of Nova Scotia. This area has a coastal climate of warm summers and cold and snowy winters with an average annual temperature of around 5 °C going up to 15 °C in summer, the coast is warmer than the islands or the sheltered inland valleys. [3]
The colder climate allows more hardwood trees to grow in the Gulf of St Lawrence than in most of this part of northeast North America. Trees of the region include eastern hemlock ( Tsuga canadensis ), balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ), American elm ( Ulmus americana ), black ash ( Fraxinus nigra ), eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), red maple ( Acer rubrum ), northern red oak ( Quercus rubra ), black spruce ( Picea mariana ), red spruce ( Picea rubens ) and white spruce ( Picea glauca ).
The forests are home to a variety of wildlife including American black bear (Ursus americanus), moose (Alces alces), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), North American porcupine (Erithyzon dorsatum), fisher (Martes pennanti), North American beaver (Castor canadensis), bobcat (Lynx rufus), American marten (Martes americana), raccoon (Procyon lotor) and muskrat (Ondatra zibethica). The area is habitat for maritime ringlet butterflies ( Coenonympha nipisiquit ) and other invertebrates. Birds include many seabirds, a large colony of great blue heron (Ardea herodias), the largest remaining population of the endangered piping plover and one of the largest colonies of double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the world.
Most of this ecoregion has been altered by logging and clearance for agriculture with only 3% of original habitat remaining and that highly fragmented. The only large block of intact habitat remains in the area around Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, although even here logging is ongoing.
British Columbia mainland coastal forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion the Pacific coast of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system.
The New England-Acadian forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in North America that includes a variety of habitats on the hills, mountains and plateaus of New England and New York State in the Northeastern United States, and Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.
The eastern forest–boreal transition is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of North America, mostly in eastern Canada. It is a transitional zone or region between the predominantly coniferous Boreal Forest and the mostly deciduous broadleaf forest region further south.
The Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It lies mostly in south and eastern Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and Upstate New York and Vermont in the United States.
The Alberta Mountain forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of Western Canada, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system.
The Alberta–British Columbia foothills forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of Western Canada, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system. This ecoregion borders Canada's taiga and contains a mix of subarctic forest and temperate forest species as a result. This makes the region an ecotone region, or a region that acts as a buffer between two other biomes.
The Eastern Canadian Boreal Forests is a boreal ecoregion in Eastern Canada, defined by the One Earth ecoregion categorization system.
The Eastern Canadian Shield taiga is an ecoregion of Canada as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system.
The Yukon Interior dry forests is a taiga ecoregion of Canada.
The Muskwa-Slave Lake Taiga ecoregion covers Canadian taiga in northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and a large portion of the southwestern Northwest Territories around the Mackenzie River valley and the Great Slave Lake.
The South Central Rockies forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the United States located mainly in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It has a considerably drier climate than the North Central Rockies forest.
The North Central Rockies forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of Canada and the United States. This region overlaps in large part with the North American inland temperate rainforest and gets more rain on average than the South Central Rockies forests and is notable for containing the only inland populations of many species from the Pacific coast.
The Mid-Canada Boreal Plains Forests is a taiga ecoregion of Western Canada, designated by One Earth. It was previously defined as the Mid-Continental Canadian Forests by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system, before it was modified by One Earth, the successor to WWF.
The Midwest Canadian Shield Forests is an ecoregion in Canada, classified as a Taiga and Boreal Forests Biome.
The Central Canadian Shield forests are a taiga ecoregion of Eastern Canada, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system.
The Newfoundland Highland forests are a taiga ecoregion located on the island of Newfoundland in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It has a total area of 4,031,999 acres.
The Western Great Lakes forests is a terrestrial ecoregion as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It is within the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome of North America. It is found in northern areas of the United States' states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and in southern areas of the Canadian province of Manitoba and northwestern areas of the province of Ontario.
The Southern Great Lakes lowland forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. Located near the Great Lakes, it lies mostly in the central northeastern United States and extends into southeast central Canada. In modern times, little of it remains intact due to land use, including agriculture and urban uses.
The Northwest Territories taiga ecoregion (WWF:NA0614) is located in the Northwest Territories and Yukon provinces of Canada. It covers forest and tundra along the Mackenzie River Valley and the surrounding highlands in the southern portion of the valley.
The Interior Yukon-Alaska alpine tundra ecoregion covers alpine, sub-alpine, and boreal forest areas along the cordillera of Interior Alaska and south-central Yukon Territory. Geologically, they are the disjunct uplands of the Yukon-Tanana Terrane plus a southern extension of the Brooks Range. The cover is extensive 'dark taiga' of closed spruce forest, open forest of other species, and alpine vegetation at higher altitudes. The region is mostly wilderness and relatively untouched by human development.