Aspen parkland
Aspen parkland refers to a very large area of transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest in two sections, namely the Peace River Country of northwestern Alberta crossing the border into British Columbia, and a much larger area stretching from central Alberta, all across central Saskatchewan to south central Manitoba and continuing into small parts of the US states of Minnesota and North Dakota. [3] Aspen parkland consists of groves of aspen, poplar and spruce, interspersed with areas of prairie grasslands, also intersected by large stream and river valleys lined with aspen-spruce forests and dense shrubbery. This is the largest boreal-grassland transition zone in the world and is a zone of constant competition and tension as prairie and woodlands struggle to overtake each other within the parkland.[4]
Aspen parkland
- Alberta-British Columbia foothills forests
- Central British Columbia Mountain forests
- Mid-Continental Canadian forests
- Montana Valley and Foothill grasslands
- Muskwa-Slave Lake forests
- North Central Rockies forests
- Northern Cordillera forests
- Northern mixed grasslands
- Northern tall grasslands
- Western Great Lakes forests
206[1]
72[1]
397,304 km2 (153,400 sq mi)
Humid continental (Dfb)
Critical/Endangered[2]
63.76%[1]
2.95%[1]
This article focuses on this biome in North America. Similar biomes also exist in Russia north of the steppes (forest steppe) and in northern Canada.
Definitions[edit]
According to the Ecological Framework of Canada, published in 1999, the Aspen Parkland ecoregion (#156) is the largest and northernmost section of Prairies Ecozone.[5] This definition is the arc-shaped region (i.e. including the WWF's central and foothills parkland but excluding the Peace River region). Partly defined by climate, it had a mean annual temperature of approximately 1.5 °C circa 1999, and rainfall varied from 400 to 500 mm/annum. It includes the communities of Red Deer and Edmonton in Alberta; Lloydminster on the Alberta–Saskatchewan border; North Battleford, Saskatoon, Humboldt, and Yorkton in Saskatchewan; and Brandon, Manitoba as its major population centres and have a total population of 1.689 million. By this definition, there are approximately 5,500,000 hectares (14,000,000 acres) of this ecoregion in the province of Alberta.[6]
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature the Canadian Aspen forests and parklands (NA0802) encompass eight ecoregions as used in the Ecological Framework of Canada: the Peace Lowland, Western Boreal, Boreal Transition, Interlake Plain, Aspen Parkland, and Southwest Manitoba Uplands (TEC 138, 143, 149, 155, 156, 161, 163, and 164). These ecoregions lie in both the Boreal Plains Ecozone and the Prairies Ecozone (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995). The Boreal sections are Manitoba Lowlands, Aspen-Oak, Aspen Grove, Mixedwood, and Lower Foothills (15-17, 18a and 19a).[7]