Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests are a temperate and humid biome. The typical structure of these forests include four layers. The upper most layer is the canopy which is composed of tall mature trees. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade tolerant understory. The top layer of the understory is the sub-canopy which is composed of smaller mature trees, saplings, and suppressed juveniles canopy layer trees awaiting an opening in the canopy. Below the sub-canopy is the shrub layer, composed of low growing woody plants. Typically the lowest growing (and most diverse) layer is the ground cover or herbaceous layer.
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[edit] Trees
Characteristic dominant broadleaf trees in this biome include oaks (Quercus spp.), beeches (Fagus spp.), maples (Acer spp.), and birches (Betula spp.).[1] The term "mixed forest" comes from the inclusion of coniferous trees as a canopy component of these forests. Typical coniferous trees include: Pines (Pinus spp.), firs (Abies spp.), and spruces (Picea spp.). In some areas of this biome the conifers may be a more important canopy species than the broadleaf species.
[edit] Climate
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests occur in areas with distinct warm and cool season, which give it a moderate annual average temperature (5.5-15.6 Celsius). These forests occur in relatively warm and rainy climates, sometimes also with a distinct dry season. A dry season occurs in the winter in East Asia and in summer on the wet fringe of the Mediterranean climate zones. Other areas have a fairly even distribution of rainfall, annual rainfall is typically over 600 millimetres (24 inches) and often over 1500 millimetres (60 inches). Temperatures are typically moderate except in parts of Asia such as Ussuriland where temperate forests can occur despite extremely harsh conditions with very cold winters.
[edit] Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions
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Oceania Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
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| Chatham Islands temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Eastern Australian temperate forests | Australia |
| Fiordland temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Nelson Coast temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Northland temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Northland temperate kauri forests | New Zealand |
| Stewart Island/Rakiura temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Richmond temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Southeast Australia temperate forests | Australia |
| Southland temperate forests | New Zealand |
| Tasmanian Central Highland forests | Australia |
| Tasmanian temperate forests | Australia |
| Tasmanian temperate rain forests | Australia |
| Westland temperate forests | New Zealand |
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Indomalaya Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
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| Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests | Bhutan, India, Nepal |
| Northern Triangle temperate forests | Burma |
| Western Himalayan broadleaf forests | India, Nepal, Pakistan |
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Nearctic Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
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| Allegheny Highlands forests | United States |
| Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests | United States |
| Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests | United States |
| Central U.S. hardwood forests | United States |
| East Central Texas forests | United States |
| Eastern forest-boreal transition | Canada, United States |
| Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests | Canada, United States |
| Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests | Canada |
| Lac Saint-Jean and Saguenay valley forests | Canada |
| Mississippi lowland forests | United States |
| New England-Acadian forests | Canada, United States |
| Northeastern coastal forests | United States |
| Ozark Mountain forests | United States |
| Southeastern mixed forests | United States |
| Southern Great Lakes forests | United States |
| Upper Midwest forest-savanna transition | United States |
| Western Great Lakes forests | Canada, United States |
| Willamette Valley forests | United States |
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Neotropic Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
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| Juan Fernandez Islands temperate forests | Chile |
| Magellanic subpolar forests | Argentina, Chile |
| Polylepis forests | Bolivia, Peru |
| San Felix-San Ambrosio Islands temperate forests (Desventuradas Islands) | Chile |
| Valdivian temperate rain forests | Argentina, Chile |
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Palearctic Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
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| Appenine deciduous montane forests | Italy |
| Atlantic mixed forests | Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany. Netherlands |
| Azores temperate mixed forests | Portugal |
| Balkan mixed forests | Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey |
| Baltic mixed forests | Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden |
| Cantabrian mixed forests | Portugal, Spain |
| Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests | Azerbaijan, Iran |
| Caucasus mixed forests | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Turkey |
| Celtic broadleaf forests | Ireland, United Kingdom |
| Central Anatolian deciduous forests | Turkey |
| Central China loess plateau mixed forests | China |
| Central European mixed forests | Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland |
| Central Korean deciduous forests | North Korea, South Korea |
| Changbai Mountains mixed forests | China, North Korea |
| Changjiang Plain evergreen forests | China |
| Crimean Submediterranean forest complex | Russia, Ukraine |
| Daba Mountains evergreen forests | China |
| Dinaric Mountains mixed forests | Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia |
| East European forest steppe | Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine |
| Eastern Anatolian deciduous forests | Turkey |
| English Lowlands beech forests | United Kingdom |
| Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests | Georgia, Turkey |
| Hokkaido deciduous forests | Japan |
| Huang He Plain mixed forests | China |
| Madeira evergreen forests | Portugal |
| Manchurian mixed forests | China, North Korea, Russia, South Korea |
| Nihonkai evergreen forests | Japan |
| Nihonkai montane deciduous forests | Japan |
| North Atlantic moist mixed forests | Ireland, United Kingdom |
| Northeast China Plain deciduous forests | China |
| Pannonian mixed forests | Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine |
| Po Basin mixed forests | Italy |
| Pyrenees conifer and mixed forests | Andorra, France, Spain |
| Qin Ling Mountains deciduous forests | China |
| Rodope montane mixed forests | Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia |
| Sarmatic mixed forests | Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Sweden |
| Sichuan Basin evergreen broadleaf forests | China |
| South Sakhalin-Kurile mixed forests | Russia |
| Southern Korea evergreen forests | South Korea |
| Taiheiyo evergreen forests | Japan |
| Taiheiyo montane deciduous forests | Japan |
| Tarim Basin deciduous forests and steppe | China |
| Ussuri broadleaf and mixed forests | Russia |
| West Siberian broadleaf and mixed forests | Russia |
| Western European broadleaf forests | Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Switzerland |
| Zagros Mountains forest steppe | Iran |
[edit] See also
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[edit] External links
- Temperate forest
- Map of the ecozones
- Index of North American Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests ecoregions at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
- Terraformers Canadian Forest Conservation Foundation
