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Hemiboreal means halfway between the temperate and subarctic (or boreal) zones. The term is most frequently used in the context of climates and ecosystems.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2014) |
Hemiboreal means halfway between the temperate and subarctic (or boreal) zones. The term is most frequently used in the context of climates and ecosystems.
A hemiboreal forest has some characteristics of a boreal forest to the north, and also shares features with temperate-zone forests to the south. Coniferous trees predominate in the hemiboreal zone, but a significant number of deciduous species, such as aspens, oaks, maples, ash trees, birches, beeches, hazels, and hornbeams, also take root here.
The term sometimes denotes the form of climate characteristic of the zone of hemiboreal forests—specifically, the climates designated Dfb, Dwb and Dsb in the Köppen climate classification scheme. On occasion, it is applied to all areas that have long, cold winters and warm (but not hot) summers—which also including areas that are semiarid(BS) and arid(BW) based on average annual precipitation. It can also be applied to some areas with a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc), particularly those with continental climate characteristics.
Examples of locations with hemiboreal climates or ecosystems include:
A biome is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader term than habitat and can comprise a variety of habitats.
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered 4.06 billion hectares, or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020.
Taiga, generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches.
An ecoregion or ecozone is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. In theory, biodiversity or conservation ecoregions are relatively large areas of land or water where the probability of encountering different species and communities at any given point remains relatively constant, within an acceptable range of variation.
The subarctic climate is a climate characterized by long, cold winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, generally at latitudes from 50° to 70°N north, poleward of the humid continental climates. Subarctic or boreal climates are the source regions for the cold air that affects temperate latitudes to the south in winter. These climates represent Köppen climate classification Dfc, Dwc, Dsc, Dfd, Dwd and Dsd.
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes, which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout the year and more distinct seasonal changes compared to tropical climates, where such variations are often small and usually only have precipitation changes.
In physical geography, a steppe is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopian Zone or Ethiopian Region.
Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain.
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and freezing cold winters. Precipitation is usually distributed throughout the year but often do have dry seasons. The definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below 0 °C (32.0 °F) or −3 °C (26.6 °F) depending on the isotherm, and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 °C (50 °F). In addition, the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid. The cooler Dfb, Dwb, and Dsb subtypes are also known as hemiboreal climates.
A temperate forest is a forest found between the tropical and boreal regions, located in the temperate zone. It is the second largest biome on our planet, covering 25% of the world's forest area, only behind the boreal forest, which covers about 33%. These forests cover both hemispheres at latitudes ranging from 25 to 50 degrees, wrapping the planet in a belt similar to that of the boreal forest. Due to its large size spanning several continents, there are several main types: deciduous, coniferous, mixed forest, and rainforest.
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.
Earthwatch Institute is an international environmental charity. Founded as Educational Expeditions International in 1971 by Bob Citron and Clarence Truesdale, Earthwatch supports hundreds of Ph.D. researchers across dozens of countries, conducting over 100,000 hours of research annually. Using the Citizen Science methodology, Earthwatch's mission statement is "to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment." As such, it is one of the global underwriters of scientific field research in archaeology, paleontology, marine life, biodiversity, ecosystems and wildlife. For over forty years, Earthwatch has raised funds to recruit individuals, students, teachers and corporate fellows to participate in critical field research to understand nature's response to accelerating global change.
The Eastern Australian temperate forests is a broad ecoregion of open forest on uplands starting from the east coast of New South Wales in the South Coast to southern Queensland, Australia. Although dry sclerophyll and wet sclerophyll eucalyptus forests predominate within this ecoregion, a number of distinguishable rainforest communities are present as well.
The Mixedwood Plains Ecozone is the Canadian ecozone with the most southern extent, covering all of southwestern Ontario, and parts of central and northeastern Ontario and southern Quebec along the Saint Lawrence River. It was originally dominated by temperate deciduous forest growing mostly on limestone covered by glacial till. It is the smallest ecozone in Canada, but it includes the country's most productive industrial and commercial region, and is home to nearly half of Canada's population, including its two largest cities, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Hence, little of the original forest cover remains, making protection of the remaining forests a high conservation priority. This ecozone includes two regions described by J.S. Rowe in his classic Forest Regions of Canada: the entire Deciduous Forest Region, and the southern portions of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest Region. In the province of Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources maps this area as Site Regions 6E and 7E.
The Appalachian temperate rainforest is located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern U.S. About 351,500 square kilometers of forest land is spread across eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, the northwestern portion of South Carolina, northern Georgia, northern Alabama, and eastern Tennessee. The annual precipitation is more than 60 inches (1,500 mm). The Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest is a temperate rainforest located in the higher elevations in southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Fir is dominant at higher elevation, spruce at middle elevation, and mixed forests at low elevation.
The Southern Siberian rainforest is an area of temperate rainforest in South Central Siberia that occurs primarily along the Altai and Sayan mountain ranges in Khakassia and Tuva as well as a small area in the Khamar-Daban Mountains near Lake Baikal in Buryatia. The forest encompasses a total area of approximately 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi). The larger portion of the forest in the Altai and Sayan Mountains runs across a latitude range that encompasses between 51.5 degrees to 56 degrees north latitude, and a longitude range running between 86 degrees to 95 degrees east longitude. The region overlaps with the Golden Mountains of Altai World Heritage Site. Ecological zones range from hemiboreal forest to a forest-steppe ecotone and include a wider variety of plant species than surrounding areas.
The temperate rainforests of the Russian Far East are within the Russian federal subjects Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai and contains the Sikhote-Alin mountain range. Found within the Russian Federation, this area is one of the most productive and diverse forests in the world and also contains one of the highest endangered species densities on Earth. While most temperate rainforests around the world have retained only a fraction of their historical range, these forests maintain the majority of their former range and almost all of their historical biodiversity. The region is also notable for having what has become the last remaining large tract of viable habitat for the critically endangered Amur tiger and Amur leopard.
The forests of Canada are located across much of the country. Approximately half of Canada is covered by forest, totaling around 2.4 million km2. Over 90% of Canada's forests are owned by the public. About half of the forests are allocated for logging.
The North American inland temperate rainforest is a 7 million hectare disjunct temperate rainforest spreading over parts of British Columbia in Canada as well as Washington, Idaho and Montana on the US side. Its patches are located on the windward slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia Mountains, extending roughly over 1000km from 54° North to 45° North. It is one of the largest inland temperate and boreal rainforests in the world.
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