Southern Great Lakes forests
| Southern Great Lakes forests | |
|---|---|
|
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| Ecology | |
| Biome | Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests |
| Borders | |
| Bird species | 220[1] |
| Mammal species | 56[1] |
| Geography | |
| Area | 244,500 km2 (94,400 sq mi) |
| Countries | United States and Canada |
| States/Provinces | Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana |
| Conservation | |
| Habitat loss | 99%[1] |
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.
Contents
Setting
This area includes much of the area south and west of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.[2] A narrow zone of this region also runs along the north shore of Lake Erie in Ontario.
This region has warm summers and mild, snowy winters.
Flora
This ecoregion is associated with the temperate deciduous forest to the south and thus contained a variety of habitats including freshwater marshes, dunes, bogs, fens, and hardwood and conifer swamps.
Fauna
The Southern Great Lakes forests were very rich in wildlife. Birds include cardinals, downy woodpecker, wood duck and eastern screech owl. Large mammals including American black bear (Ursus americanus), moose (Alces alces), and gray wolf (Canis lupus) have been removed from this ecoregion and remaining mammals include white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), coyote (Canis latrans), snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus), American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).
Threats and preservation
Because of extensive urbanization and agriculture use very little of this habitat remains intact.
See also
References and external links
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- Central U.S. hardwood forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
- Southern Great Lakes forests
