1.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different
2.
Biome
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A biome /ˈbaɪoʊm/ is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in, and can be found over a range of continents. Spanning continents, biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate, biome is a broader term than habitat, any biome can comprise a variety of habitats. While a biome can cover large ares, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a space as well. For example, the microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses. The biotas of the Earth make up the biosphere, the term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, the International Biological Program projects popularized the concept of biome. However, in contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. Both includes many biomes in fact and their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them. A1978 study on North American grasslands found a positive correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge’s bioclassification scheme, Holdridge uses the four axes to define 30 so-called humidity provinces, which are clearly visible in his diagram. While this scheme largely ignores soil and sun exposure, Holdridge acknowledged that these were important and his scheme can be seen as a simplification of Holdridges, more readily accessible, but missing Holdridges greater specificity. Whittaker based his approach on theoretical assertions and empirical sampling and he was in a unique position to make such a holistic assertion because he had previously compiled a review of biome classifications. Physiognomy, the apparent characteristics, outward features, or appearance of communities or species. Biome, a grouping of terrestrial ecosystems on a continent that are similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, features of the environment. Formation, a kind of community of plants on a given continent. Biome-type, grouping of convergent biomes or formations of different continents, whittakers distinction between biome and formation can be simplified, formation is used when applied to plant communities only, while biome is used when concerned with both plants and animals. Whittakers convention of biome-type or formation-type is simply a method to categorize similar communities. Whittaker considered four main ecoclines in the terrestrial realm, changes in physiognomic complexity vary with how favorable of an environment exists
3.
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial biome, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. The term Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is used by the World Wildlife Fund in global biogeography as one of the biome designations under which to organize ecoregions, the typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of mature trees ranging from 30 to 61 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to 15 m shorter than the canopy, the top layer of the understory is the sub-canopy composed of smaller mature trees, saplings, and suppressed juvenile canopy layer trees awaiting an opening in the canopy. Below the sub-canopy is the layer, composed of low growing woody plants. Typically the lowest growing layer is the cover or herbaceous layer. In the Northern hemisphere, characteristic dominant broadleaf trees in this biome include oaks, beeches, maples, the term mixed forest comes from the inclusion of coniferous trees as a canopy component of some of these forests. Typical coniferous trees include, Pines, firs, and spruces, in some areas of this biome the conifers may be a more important canopy species than the broadleaf species. In the Southern hemisphere, endemic genera such as Nothofagus and Eucalyptus occupy this biome, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests occur in areas with distinct warm and cool season, which give it a moderate annual average temperature —3 to 15.6 °C. These forests occur in 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, as in the central and upper eastern United States and southeastern Canada, have an even distribution of rainfall, annual rainfall is typically over 600 mm
4.
Eastern forest-boreal transition
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The Eastern forest-boreal transition is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of North America, mostly in eastern Canada. There is a section of the ecoregion in the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York State. However the higher elevations of the Laurentian Mountains and the northern Appalachian Mountains in Canada constitute the Eastern Canadian forests ecoregion, the region has a humid continental climate consisting of warm summers and cold, snowy winters, and is warmer towards the south. The flora in this ecoregion varies considerably based on soil conditions and these mixed forests are distinct from the deciduous forests south of the Canadian Shield and the cooler boreal forests to the north. Conifer swamps occur in areas that seasonally flooded, trees can be very dense or sparse, mats of sphagnum moss cover the ground. Black spruce and tamarack are the predominant tree species, where the soil is not saturated year round grows northern white cedar. Speckled alder grows around the edges of swamps and red spruce. Lowland conifer forests occur on flats, low ridges, and knolls near bodies of water and they are dominated by balsam fir and red spruce, although white pine and paper birch also occur. The ground is often stony with little vegetation, hardwood-conifer mixed forests occur in a transition zone between lowland conifer and northern hardwood forests. The ground is less rocky than in the conifer forests. Trees include red spruce, balsam fir, eastern hemlock, red maple, the understory vegetation is abundant, with witchhobble, honeysuckle, and striped maple. The herbaceous layer include common wood sorrel, bunchberry, yellow clintonia, ferns, northern hardwood forests occur on the richest, most productive soils. Sugar maple, American beech, and yellow birch are the predominant tree species, in secondary forests, red spruce, white pine, white ash, eastern hemlock, black cherry, and red maple are present. Witchhobble is an understory shrub. Ferns clubmosses grow in the herbaceous layer, upper slope hardwood-conifer mixed forests are an area of transition between the northern hardwood and the mountain conifer forests. They are similar to forests, but with no red maple. Red spruce and eastern hemlock, together with maple, yellow birch. Red spruce and balsam fir are common at elevations of the mountain conifer forests
5.
New England/Acadian forests
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This ecoregion has a humid continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. There is also a patch of forest-boreal transition on the Adirondack Mountains. This entire area is referred to as the Atlantic Northeast. The climate consists of warm summers and cold winters with the Atlantic Ocean bringing rain all year round. The seaboard lowlands of this region, which extends to mid-coastal Maine, the forests of this area were radically cleared for agricultural land by the 19th century and then renewed as many of these farms were abandoned following the migration westward. Today the area is largely a mosaic of habitats influenced locally by micro-climatic differences, essentially, there are four important community types which show considerable diversity and blending across this physiographic province. These communities are, alpine communities on the highest mountains, coniferous forests, northern hardwood forests, there are no clear boundaries between the coniferous forests and the hardwood forests in the New England-Acadian ecoregion. The prevalence in the canopy of red pine and red spruce distinguish the transition forests of New England from those in the Great Lakes region to the west, some of western Vermont is in the Adirondack province, but generally exhibits similar vegetation. Areas of particular interest include areas of rocks, peat bog. Alpine communities are essentially regions of Arctic tundra, or treeless tundra-like communities and these are restricted to the tops of mountains that reach above the tree line, about 1300 metres. Mountaintops of Nova Scotias Cape Breton Island may have minor alpine biota, krumholtz and other aspects, full-blown alpine communities are found on Washington and the other White Mountains of New Hampshire and on Mount Katahdin in Maine. Quebecs Gaspé Peninsula, vegetatively similar to Maine and New Brunswick and these tall mountains serve as refugia for arctic plants left over from the retreat of the Laurentide glacier at the end of the last ice age. The truest alpine tundra communities are located on the western and northwestern slopes of tall mountains. The western slopes are typically heath dominated communities composed of plant of the family Ericaceae, common dominant components of the heaths are alpine bilberry and mountain cranberry. It is also found on parts of the Fundy coast in Maine and the Maritimes, 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 temperatures, a growing period, sandy-gravely acidic soil. It is also noted for a rate of precipitation, year round, as rain and snow. The dominant canopy species of this area include red pine, balsam fir, paper birch, red spruce, also present are jack pine, and white pine which is found in areas of richer soil in the lower elevations of this forest
6.
Northeastern coastal forests
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The Northeastern coastal forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the northeast and middle Atlantic region of the United States. The ecoregion is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the north, it transitions to the New England-Acadian forests, which cover most of northern and inland New England. To the west, the transitions to Allegheny Highlands forests. To the south lie the Southeastern mixed forests and the Middle Atlantic coastal forests, the ecoregion surrounds the distinct Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion, which covers portions of southern New Jersey, Long Island and Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts. The climate in this ecoregion is the transition from the northern humid continental Oak forests dominate this ecoregion. American chestnut was formerly important, but its population was devastated by the chestnut blight early in the 20th century, Northeastern interior dry-mesic oak forests are found throughout this ecoregion. They cover large areas at low and middle elevations, typically on flat to rolling terrain. Red oak, white oak, and black oak are common oaks in this habitat, other trees include hickories, red maple, sugar maple, white ash, tulip tree, American beech, black cherry, black birch, black tupelo, and American elm. Flowering dogwood is an understory tree. Common shrubs are maple-leaved viburnum, spicebush, and witch hazel, in sandier or more acidic soils are mountain laurel, blueberry, huckleberry, and swamp azalea. Mayapple is a herbaceous plant. Hemlock-northern hardwood forests occur in coves, moist flats. They include sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech and these trees often form a deciduous canopy, but are sometimes mixed with hemlock or white pine. Other common trees include oaks, tuliptree, black cherry, in the Northeast, red spruce can be a minor canopy associate. Hophornbeam is frequent but not dominant, central Appalachian dry oak-pine forests occur on dry sites with loamy to sandy soils. A mix of oak and pine tree species dominate the canopy, typically oak, Virginia pine, and white pine. Varying amounts of oaks and pines result in oak forests, mixed oak-pine forests, shrubs such as hillside blueberry, black huckleberry, and mountain laurel are common in the understory and can form a dense layer. Central Appalachian pine-oak rocky woodlands occur on hilltops, outcrops
7.
Allegheny Highlands forests
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The Allegheny Highlands forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The ecoregion has a continental climate with warm to hot summers. Most of this forest was cleared in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, although all individual trees species still remain, their quantities and distribution are radically different from the forests original state. The Finger Lakes area has a rich mixture of woodland. Upland hardwood forests include red maple, American beech, black cherry, Allegheny hardwood forests consist of black cherry, white ash, and tulip poplar. Mixed-oak forests of red oak, white oak, eastern black oak. Northern hardwood forests include sugar maple and American beech, also common are yellow birch, eastern hemlock, red maple, black cherry, and eastern white pine. Hemlock tends to follow stream drainages, while white pine prefers drier ridgetops, white ash, American elm, basswood, and hop hornbeam can occur locally. Boreal forests occur at high elevations, particularly on the peaks of the Catskill Mountains and these forests include balsam fir, paper birch, mountain ash, and red cherry. Wild raisin and mountain holly are shrubs that grow in high elevation swamps, bogs, Wildlife of the forest includes bobcat, American black bear, coyote, and flying squirrel
8.
Southern Great Lakes forests
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The Southern 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 the central northeastern United States and extends into southeast central Canada and this area includes the southern half of Michigans Lower Peninsula, and much of Indiana and Ohio. It also extends through the half of Southwest Ontario from Windsor to Toronto and into Pennsylvania and New York on the southern rims of lakes Erie. This region is characterized by warm-to-hot summers and mild-to-cold, snowy winters, the Southern Great Lakes forests were very rich in wildlife. Birds include cardinals, downy woodpecker, wood duck and eastern screech owl, because of extensive urbanization and agricultural use very little of this habitat remains intact. List of ecoregions in the United States Southern Great Lakes Forests, archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Central U. S. hardwood forests images at bioimages. vanderbilt. edu Southern Great Lakes forests
9.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
