What is an Ecozone?

An ecozone is a region based on it's ecological characteristics.  It is literally a "file folder" of information about that specific area.  These "file folder" contains information such as area, landforms, climate, vegetation, soils, human activities and major cities.

Which ecozones are in the north of Canada?

There are many different ecozones located in northern Canada.  These include the Arctic Cordillera, the Northern Arctic, the Southern Arctic, the Taiga Plains, the Taiga Shield, the Taiga Cordillera, the Boreal Cordillera, and a tiny bit of the Boreal Plains.

Southern Arctic
The Southern Arctic is 776 000 km².  It experiences long winters of around -25˚C and short summers of up to 10˚C.  There is a short growing season of around 80 days and there is around 200 to 300mm of precipitation.  There are some shrubs but that is about all of the vegetation that you will find.  The landforms in this region consist of plains and hills of the Canadian Shield.  The only soil is permafrost and the rest is bare rock.  There is a total population of 10 000 and there is a GDP of $150 million.  The only major cities in the are are Rankin Island, Tuktoyaktuk and Povungnituk.

Taiga Plains
The Taiga Plains is 563 000km².  It experiences long winters of about -23˚C and short summers of around 12˚C.  There is a growing season of about 80 to 150 days and it recieves about 200 to 400mm of precipitation.  There is a bit of vegetation ranging from open forest to dense forest.  The landforms consist of Interior Plains and some foothills.  There is permafrost all over the north and in most of the south.  There are some scattered poor quality soils throughout the ecozone.  The rest is bare rock.  There is a total population of 34 000 people and the GDP is $500 million.  The major cities in this ecozone are Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Simpson.

Taiga Shield
The Taiga Shield is 1 269 000km².  It experiences moderately long winters of -25˚C and moderately short summers of 12˚C.  There is a growing season of 100 to 140 days and 300 to 900mm of precipitation is experienced.  The landforms in this ecozone are Plains and hills of the Canadian Shield.  There is a bit of vegetation, including black spruce, jack pine, paper birch and trembling aspen.  There are thin, highly leached soils and the rest is bare rock.  There is a total population of 34 000 people and a GDP of $1.1 billion.  The major cities are Yellowknife, Uranium City and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Boreal Cordillera
The Boreal Cordillera is only about half in the north of Canada.  It is shared with B.C.  It is about 432 000km².  It experiences long winters of -20˚C and short summers of 12˚C.  There is a growing season of 125 to 150 days and this ecozone recieves 300 to 500mm of precipitation.  The landforms in this ecozone are mountainous with some hills.  There is a bit of natural vegetation, mostly consisting of coniferous trees.  There are a variety of mountain soils throughout this ecozone.  The total population of this area is 16 000 people and the GDP is $900 million.  The only two major cities are Whitehorse and Dawson.

Ecozones

Ecozones in the north:

Arctic Cordillera
The Arctic Cordillera is 239 000km².  It experiences long winters of -40˚C and short summers of around 0˚C.  There is pretty much no growing season and less then 200mm of precipitation.  It is a tundra so there is not a lot of vegetation and there is mostly permafrost and bare rock.  The landforms in this region consists of the Innuition Mountains.  The population of this ecozone is around 1000 people and the GDP is $12 million.  The only "major" cities are Pond Inlet, Clyde River and Broughten Island.  Santa Clause is rumoured to live somewhere north of Broughten Island.

Northern Arctic
The Northern Arctic is 1 433 000km².  It also experiences long winters of -30˚ and short summers of around 5˚C.  There is a growing season of 50 days and about 200mm of precipitation.  This is why there is almost no vegetation, aside from groud hugging plants.  The only landforms in this region are plains and upland areas.  The soils in this ecozone are permafrost and tundra soils.  There is a total population of 16 000 people and a GDP of $380 million.  The only major cities in this ecozone are Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and Resolute.

Taiga Cordillera
The Taiga Cordillera is 240 000km².  It experiences long winters of -24˚C and short summers of 13˚C.  There is a growing season of 90 to 130 days and 250 to 400mm of precipitation is experienced.  The landforms in the Taiga Cordillera are mountainous.  The soils in this ecozone are a variety of poor quality soils and bare rock.  The vegetation in this ecozone consists of tundra and areas of scattered forest.  There is a total population of 360 people and the GDP is $5 million.  The only "major city" is Old Crow.

Boreal Plains
The Boreal Plains are not really worth explaining.  A  tiny bit of it (maybe one twentieth of it) is located in the north, but aside from that this ecozone is mainly a prarie thing and the information wouldn't be that relevant to the north.