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A boreal ecosystem is an ecosystem with a subarctic climate located in the Northern Hemisphere, approximately between 50° and 70°N latitude. These ecosystems are commonly known as taiga and are located in parts of North America , Europe , and Asia . [ 1 ]
Taiga or tayga (/ ˈ t aɪ ɡ ə / TY-gə; Russian: тайга́, IPA:), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. [1]
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]
Alaska is the most biodiverse state with 15 ecoregions across three biomes in the same realm. California comes in a close second with 13 ecoregions across four biomes in the same realm. By contrast, Rhode Island is the least biodiverse with just one ecoregion—the Northeastern coastal forests —encompassing the entire state.
Because the island is young and isolated from larger land masses, species biodiversity is relatively low. Forest cover has been reduced to about 1% of the original birch forest by a long history of timber extraction and soil erosion caused by sheep grazing. Blanket bogs (areas of high rainfall and peat accumulation) are common. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Most of Quebec's coniferous boreal forest grows on the Canadian Shield. [3] The Appalachians form less acidic and more fertile soils, still rocky, but with less sand and more silt. In the Eastern Townships the forests are mostly deciduous, but the forests of the Bas-Saint-Laurent and the Gaspé Peninsula are mostly conifers. [3]
The Scandinavian and Russian taiga is an ecoregion within the taiga and boreal forests biome as defined by the WWF classification (ecoregion PA0608). [1] It is situated in Northern Europe between tundra in the north and temperate mixed forests in the south and occupies about 2,156,900 km 2 (832,800 sq mi) in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the northern part of European Russia, being the largest ...
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 ...