*** Welcome to piglix ***

Scandinavian Montane Birch forest and grasslands


The Scandinavian Montane Birch forests and grasslands ecoregion, a Palearctic ecoregion of the Alpine tundra and Boreal forest Biomes, located in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. It is one of the terrestrial ecoregions determined and defined by the World Wildlife Fund.

The Scandinavian Montane Birch forests and grasslands is one of the Global 200 ecoregions, and is thus regarded as a high priority for conservation.

The ecoregion follows the Scandinavian Mountains, and spans 11 degrees of latitude from the south to the north. Abouth two-thirds of the ecoregion are located in Norway, about one-third in Sweden and a small area touches the northwesternmost part of Finland. This is a varied ecoregion, 1,600 km long, with a total area of approximately 243 000 km2 (slightly larger than Great Britain).

The largest glaciers on the European mainland are located here (Jostedalsbreen, Svartisen), as are Northern Europe's highest mountains (Jotunheimen) and largest mountain plateau. The mountain chain itself creates a rain shadow, and the eastern part of the mountain chain is considerably drier than the western part. The ecoregion is divided in two parts, the southern part is in Norway's central mountains and goes down to the western fjords. The northern part follows the Kjølen mountains, and also goes down to the fjords in the west. The western part of the ecoregion, both in the south and north, borders on the Scandinavian coastal conifer forests ecoregion or directly on the fjords (Norwegian Sea and North Sea). The eastern part of the ecoregion, both in the south and the north, borders on the Scandinavian and Russian taiga ecoregion. In the far south it meets the Sarmatic mixed forest ecoregion, while the extreme northeasternmost part near the Barents Sea bordes on the Kola peninsula tundra ecoregion.


...
Wikipedia

...