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Boreal forest near Shovel Point in Tettegouche State Park, along the northern shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.. A boreal ecosystem is an ecosystem with a subarctic climate located in the Northern Hemisphere, approximately between 50° and 70°N latitude.
60% of the land in the European Union part of the region is covered by forest, but most of this is commercial plantings. Less than 5-10% of the forest is old growth. The typical western taiga forest contains Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) growing on shallow soil covered in moss, lichen and ericaceous shrubs. [1]
The boreal forest/taiga supports a relatively small variety of highly specialized and adapted animals, due to the harshness of the climate. Canada's boreal forest includes 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish, and an estimated 32,000 species of insects. [37] Insects play a critical role as pollinators, decomposers, and as a part of the ...
Boreal conditions can be found across northern North America, Europe and Eurasia. [46] The boreal forests in the interior of the continents grow on top of permafrost due to very cold winters (see drunken trees), though much of the boreal forest biome has patchy permafrost or lacks permafrost completely. The short (3–4 month) growing season in ...
Global warming is a threat to all the Earth's ecosystems, but it is a more immediate threat to those found in cold climates. The communities of species found at these latitudes are adapted to the cold, so any significant warming can upset the balance. For instance, insects struggle to survive the cold winters typical of the boreal forest.
It is also found on parts of the Fundy coast in Maine and the Maritimes, the northern parts of this ecoregion where the summers are cool. The coniferous forest goes by many names, including: Boreal forest, fir-spruce forest, the North Woods, and the taiga. It is noted in New England for its "harsh" conditions such as cold, subarctic ...
Boreal forests occur in the more southern parts of the taiga ecoregion that spreads across the northern parts of the world. Canada's boreal forest is a vast region comprising about one third of the circumpolar boreal forest that rings the Northern Hemisphere, mostly north of the 50th parallel. [1]
The Boreal forest and its alpine cousins are host to a wide variety of deer, ranging from the large moose to the whitetail deer. All of these large herbivores prefer the cool forest lest they overheat in the sun, but all need open land on which to graze. Of the deer, moose are perhaps best adapted to wetlands and thrive in the boggy boreal forest.