Map of Canada’s Ecozones
Types of Ecozones in Toronto
- Boreal Shield
- Mixed Wood Plains
Boreal Shield
The Boreal Shield covers a wide space from Alberta to Newfoundland. It is to the south of the Taiga Shield and the Hudson Plains and north of a variety of ecozones, such as the Boreal Plains, Mixedwood Plains, and Atlantic Maritime. The shield is covered in exposed bedrock, endless forests, and rivers. Summers have an averages temperature throughout the area, about 13°C. Winters in the east have a milder temperature of a -1°C average. However is the west the average temperature in the winter is -20°C. Precipitation in the west is very minimal, about 400mm a year, but it can be as high as 1600mm a year. To the north in the Boreal Shield the plants are mainly coniferous, but broadleaf trees appear further south. Some tree species found in the Boreal Shield are:
- White Spruce
- Black Spruce
- Balsam Fir
- Tamarack
- Trembling Aspen
- Balsam Poplar
- White Pine
- Red Pine
- Jack Pine
- Eastern White Pine
- Red Maple
- Mountain Maple
- Eastern Red Cedar
- Eastern Hemlock
- Black Ash
- Speckled Alder
- Pin Cherry
- Paper Birch
- White Birch
- Woodland Caribou
- White-Tailed Deer
- Moose
- Black Bear
- Lynx
- Wolf
- Raccoon
- Eastern Chipmunk
- Snowshoe Hare
- Fisher
- Ermine
- River Otter
Mixedwood Plains
The Mixedwood Plains extends along the Quebec City-Windsor corridor, which includes the region of southern Ontario, including Toronto. The Mixedwood Plains is the smallest of the ecozones of Canada, but it is also the home of half of Canada’s population. It has cool winters, average temperature is -5°C, and warm summers, average temperature is 17°C. Mixedwood Plains has many major storms due to the highly changeable weather. Urbanization has reduced the ancient forests drastically. Mixes of coniferous trees include white pine, red pine, eastern hemlock, and black spruce. There are also some deciduous trees, but not very many. The largest carnivores in this ecozone are the black bear, wolf, and bobcat, while the largest herbivores are the moose, and white-tailed deer.