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temperate forest
Table of Contents
temperate forest

 * Introduction
   
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   Origin
   
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   Environment
   
 * Biota
    * Flora
   
    * Fauna

 * 
   Population and community development and structure
   
 * 
   Biological productivity
   

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TEMPERATE FOREST

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By Jeremy M.B. Smith • Edit History

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Table of Contents
temperate forest distribution
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Related Topics: coniferous forest deciduous forest cold-deciduous forest
temperate deciduous forest evergreen forest ...(Show more)
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temperate forest, vegetation type with a more or less continuous canopy of
broad-leaved trees. Such forests occur between approximately 25° and 50°
latitude in both hemispheres. Toward the polar regions they grade into boreal
forests, which are dominated by evergreen conifers, so that mixed forests
containing both deciduous and coniferous trees occupy intermediate areas.
Covering approximately 10 million square km (about 3.9 million square miles) of
Earth’s land area, temperate forests usually are classified into two main
groups: deciduous and evergreen.

Deciduous forests are found in regions of the Northern Hemisphere that have
moist, warm summers and frosty winters—primarily eastern North America, eastern
Asia, and western Europe. In contrast, evergreen forests—excepting boreal
forests, which are covered in boreal forest—typically grow in areas with mild,
nearly frost-free winters. They fall into two subcategories—broad-leaved forests
and sclerophyllous forests. (Sclerophyllous vegetation has small, hard, thick
leaves.) The former grow in regions that have reliably high, year-round
rainfall; the latter occur in areas with lower, more erratic rainfall.
Broad-leaved forests dominate the natural vegetation of New Zealand; they are
significantly represented in South America, eastern Australia, southern China,
Korea, and Japan; and they occur in less well-developed form in small areas of
southeastern North America and southern Africa. Sclerophyllous forests occur
particularly in Australia and in the Mediterranean region.


trees, deciduous and coniferous
Prominent structural differences between coniferous and deciduous trees.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.



ORIGIN

Temperate forests originated during the period of cooling of world climate that
began at the start of the Cenozoic Era (65.5 million years ago). As global
climates cooled, climatic gradients steepened with increasing latitude, and
areas with a hot, wet climate became restricted to equatorial regions. At
temperate latitudes, climates became progressively cooler, drier, and more
seasonal. Many plant lineages that were unable to adapt to new conditions became
extinct, but others evolved in response to the climatic changes, eventually
dominating the new temperate forests. In areas that differed least from the
previously tropical environments—where temperate evergreen forests now grow—the
greatest numbers of plant and animal species survived in forms most similar to
those of their tropical ancestors. Where conditions remained relatively moist
but temperatures dropped in winter, deciduous trees evolved from evergreen
rainforest ancestors. In areas that became much more dry—though not to the
extent that tree development was inhibited and only scrubland or desert
environments were favoured—sclerophyllous trees evolved.



During the rapid climatic fluctuations of the past two million years in which
conditions alternated between dry, cold glacial states—the ice ages of some
northern temperate regions—and warmer, moister interglacial intervals, tree
species of temperate forests had to migrate repeatedly to remain within climates
suitable for their survival. Such migration was carried out by seed dispersal,
and trees that were able to disperse their seeds the farthest had an advantage.
In the North American and European regions where ice-sheet development during
glacial intervals was most extensive, the distances that had to be traversed
were greatest, and many species simply died out. Extinctions occurred not only
where migration distances were great but also where mountains or seas provided
barriers to dispersal, as in southern Europe. Thus, many trees that were
formerly part of the European temperate forests have become extinct in the
floristically impoverished forest regions of western Europe and are restricted
to small refuge areas such as the Balkans and the Caucasus. For example, buckeye
(Aesculus) and sweet gum (Liquidambar) are two trees that no longer occur
naturally in most parts of Europe, having disappeared during the climatic
turmoil of the past two million years.

Human activities have had pronounced effects on the nature and extent of modern
temperate forests. As long ago as 8,000 years, most sclerophyllous forests of
the Mediterranean region had been cut over for timber or cleared to make space
for agricultural pursuits. By 4,000 years ago in China the same process led to
the removal of most broad-leaved and deciduous forests. In Europe of 500 years
ago the original deciduous forests had disappeared, although they are remembered
in nursery tales and other folklore as the deep, wild woods in which children
and princesses became lost and in which dwarfs and wild animals lived.

The deciduous forests of North America had been cleared almost completely by the
end of the 19th century. Australia and New Zealand experienced similar
deforestation about the same time, although the earlier activities of
pre-European peoples had had substantial impacts. The character of the
Australian sclerophyllous forests changed in response to more than 38,000 years
of burning by the Aboriginal people, and the range of these forests was expanded
at the expense of broad-leaved forests. In New Zealand about half the forested
area, which previously had covered almost the entire country, was destroyed by
fire brought to the island by the Polynesian inhabitants who arrived 1,000 years
before the Europeans.



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