Western Great Lakes forests | |
---|---|
Ecology | |
Realm | Nearctic |
Biome | Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests |
Borders | |
Bird species | 216 [1] |
Mammal species | 64 [1] |
Geography | |
Area | 274,000 km2 (106,000 sq mi) |
Countries | |
States/Provinces | |
Climate type | Humid continental (Dfb) |
Conservation | |
Conservation status | Relatively Stable/Intact [2] |
Habitat loss | 2% [1] |
Protected | 32.4% [1] |
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 Western Great Lakes forests, in large part, lie in the northwestern Great Lakes Basin near the shores of Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, including the entire Upper Peninsula of Michigan and large parts of Northern Wisconsin, around Lake Superior into much of northern Minnesota and a smaller section into Canada. In the west, the ecoregion surrounds the lakes and rivers that divide Minnesota from Ontario, including Lake of the Woods and Rainy River, and it extends near the Winnipeg River into southeastern Manitoba. [2]
This region has warm summers and cold, snowy winters. This region is generally similar in climate and condition to the Eastern forest-boreal transition to its east, except that it is generally somewhat drier (the prevailing winds blow west to east and drier air from the plains comes here first before it picks up moisture over the lakes) and, especially in its southern and central areas, its soil is much thicker and less acidic, which makes for more varied vegetation. [3]
This ecoregion is a transition area between the taiga (Boreal forest) to the north and the temperate deciduous forest and tallgrass prairie to the south and west and thus contains a variety of habitats including northern coniferous forests, northern hardwood forest, boreal hardwood-conifer forest, swamp forest, and peatland, in addition to freshwater marshes, bogs, fens, and hardwood river basins and conifer swamps, and large hardwood and conifer stands. Trees of the woodland include White pine ( Pinus strobus ) and Red pine ( Pinus resinosa ) with paper birch ( Betula papyrifera ) and Quaking aspen, and Jack pine ( Pinus banksiana ) forests, Black spruce ( Picea mariana ), White spruce ( Picea glauca ), Balsam fir ( Abies balsamifera ), Tamarack ( Larix laricina ), Northern white cedar ( Thuja occidentalis ), Northern pin oak ( Quercus ellipsoidalis ), and hazel ( Corylus cornuta ). "Common species of the northern hardwoods include sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ), red maple ( Acer rubrum ), American beech ( Fagus grandifolia ), hop hornbeam ( Ostrya virginiana ), basswood ( Tilia americana ), yellow birch ( Betula alleghaniensis ) and eastern hemlock ( Tsuga canadensis )" and Northern pin oak ( Quercus ellipsoidalis ). [2]
The Western Great Lakes forests are very rich in wildlife. Wildlife "include moose ( Alces alces ), black bear ( Ursus americanus ), lynx ( Lynx canadensis ), snowshoe hare ( Lepus americanus ), white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ), and woodchuck ( Marmota monax ). Bird species include ruffed grouse ( Bonasa umbellus ), hooded merganser ( Lophodytes cucullatus ), pileated woodpecker ( Dryocopus pileatus ), bald eagle ( Haleaeetus leucocephalus ), turkey vulture ( Cathartes aura ), herring gull ( Larus argentatus ), and waterfowl. American black duck ( Anas rubripes ) and wood duck ( Aix sponsa ) occur in the eastern part of the ecoregion." [2] After being nearly extirpated from the conterminous United States, gray wolves ( Canis lupus ) survived in the remote northeastern corner of Minnesota and Ontario. The repopulation of wolves in this region has occurred naturally as they have expanded their territory.
While the area does now have large protected sections, historically logging (especially of pine wood) has changed many sections and continues today. Agricultural development, especially orchards in Lower Michigan has also reduced the habitat. In addition, the establishment of roads and lakeside homes significantly impacts the forests.
Large protected areas of the Western Great Lakes forests include:
The Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests is an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It consists of mesophytic plants west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United States.
The Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests is a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion located in northern Anatolia, Turkey.
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 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.
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 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 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 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.
Northern Canadian Shield taiga is a taiga ecoregion located in northern Canada, stretching from Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories to Hudson Bay in eastern Nunavut. The region supports conifer forests to its northern edge, where the territory grades into tundra. The open forest in this transition zone is characterized by widely scattered, stunted stands of black spruce and tamarack, with some white spruce. The ecoregion lies over the northwestern extent of the Canadian Shield.
The Southern Hudson Bay taiga is a terrestrial ecoregion, as classified by the World Wildlife Fund, which extends along the southern coast of Hudson Bay and resides within the larger taiga biome. The region is nearly coterminous with the Hudson Plain, a Level I ecoregion of North America as designated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in its North American Environmental Atlas.
The Carpathian montane conifer forests, also known as Carpathian montane forests, is a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion in the Carpathian Mountains of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine.
The Alps conifer and mixed forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion in central Europe. It extends along the Alps mountains through portions of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Slovenia. The ecoregion extends from the lower slopes of the Alps to its peaks, which include Mont Blanc, at 4,809 m (15,778 ft) the highest peak in the Alps.
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.