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In terms of biodiversity, the only comparable temperate deciduous forest regions in the world are in central China, Japan, and in the Caucasus Mountains.Both the Appalachians (along with the neighbouring Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests ecoregion) and central China contain relict habitats of an ancient forest that was once widespread over the Northern Hemisphere.
The range is older than the other major mountain range in North America, the Rocky Mountains of the west. Some of the outcrops in the Appalachians contain rocks formed during the Precambrian era. The geologic processes that led to the formation of the Appalachian Mountains started 1.1 billion years ago.
Thus relatively little is known about Appalachia in comparison to Laramidia, with the exception of plant life, marine life and the insects trapped in amber from New Jersey. In addition, due to a lack of interest in Appalachia, many fossils that have been found in Appalachia lie unstudied and remain in the inaccurate genera to which they were ...
Edgar Allan Poe later took up the idea and considered Appalachia a much better name than America or Alleghania; he thought it better defined the United States as a distinct geographical entity, separate from the rest of the Americas, and he also thought it did honor to both Irving and the natives after whom the Appalachian Mountains had been ...
The Appalachian temperate rainforest has a cool and mild climate and meets the criteria of temperate rainforests identified by Alaback. [1] Temperature and precipitation are extremely variable with elevation, with rainforest conditions usually but not always concentrated around spruce–fir forests at higher elevations.
In southern Appalachia, growth of sycamore, walnut, and hickory trees are common. It is estimated that there is around 2,000 species of flora within the Appalachia region. Flowers vary due to elevation and climate of the area of Appalachia region. Different types of flowers in the northern and southern sections of the Appalachia.
[4] [7] The two trees can be distinguished by their needles and cones, with Fraser firs having blunt-shaped needles and upright cones and red spruces having prickly four-cornered needles and cones pointing downward. [8] The oldest red spruces are over 300 years old, and the tallest grow to over 100 feet (30 m).
[1] [2] Like other mountains, the Appalachians have high rates of endemism because they create isolated "islands" of unique habitat conditions distant from other, similar habitats. The high elevations of the Appalachians functioned as refugia at the end of the last ice age , and house many relict taxa that were more widespread in Southeastern ...