The Appalachians are home to 158 different species of tree, more than anywhere else in North America.
The Great Smoky Mountains are particularly rich in biodiversity. There are species, genera, and families of plants that occur only in these two locations. Both the Appalachians (along with the neighbouring Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests ecoregion) and central China contain relict habitats of an ancient forest that was once widespread over the Northern Hemisphere. In terms of biodiversity, the only comparable temperate deciduous forest regions in the world are in central China, Japan and in the Caucasus Mountains. See also: Appalachian temperate rainforest Flora Winters are cold at higher elevations and cool at lower elevations. Summers are hot at lower elevations, warm at higher elevations. The climate varies from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The mountains also contain a large variety of diverse landscapes, microclimates and soils all constituting microhabitats allowing many refugia areas and relict species to survive and thrive. The reasons for this are the long-term geologic stability of the region, its long ridges and valleys which serve both as barrier and corridors, and their general north-south alignment which allowed habitats to shift southward during ice ages. They are one of the world's richest temperate deciduous forests in terms of biodiversity there are an unusually high number of species of both flora and fauna, as well as a high number of endemic species. It covers an area of about 61,500 square miles (159,000 km 2) in: northeast Alabama and Georgia, northwest South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and central West Virginia and Pennsylvania and small extensions into Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York. The ecoregion is located in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Appalachian–Blue Ridge forests are an ecoregion in the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome, in the Eastern United States. Humid continental, humid subtropical and subtropical highland
0 kommentar(er)
