Elevation Zones

Jan 19, 2014 (Last modified Jan 21, 2014)
Created by 2C1Forest
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Description
Elevation has been shown to be a powerful predictor of the distribution of forest communities in the Northeast U.S and Eastern Canada. Temperature, precipitation, and exposure commonly vary with changing altitude. The Northern Appalachian/Acadian Ecoregion can be divided into 5 ecologically relevant elevation zones based on tree communities.

Elevzone    Meter (feet)                     Characteristic forest type
10000         234 (0-800)                        Oak, pine-oak, pine-hemlock, maritime spruce, floodplain forest
2000           234 - 533 (800-1700)         Hemlock-northern hardwoods, N. hardwoods, lowland spruce-fir
3000           533 - 762 (1700-2500)       Northern hardwoods, spruce-hardwoods
4000           762 - 1158 (2500-4000)     Spruce-fir, spruce-hardwoods
5000           > 1158 (>4000)                  Krummholz, montane spruce-fir, alpine communities
Location
Credits
The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Conservation Science and The Nature Conservancy of Canada: Atlantic and Quebec regions
Use Constraints
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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Tags
elevation, northern appalachians
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About the Map Author

2C1Forest
with Two Countries, One Forest

A Canadian-U.S. collaborative of conservation organizations, researchers, foundations and conservation-minded individuals. Our international community is focused on the protection, conservation and restoration of forests and natural heritage from New York to Nova Scotia, across the Northern...