The 8 physical geographical regions in North America
By Jacob Lilley
Feb 10, 2014
Region
Color
Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence Lowlands
Blue
Canadian Shield
Red
Interior Plains
Yellow
Intermountain Region
Green
Arctic Plains
Purple
Appalachian Region
Orange
Coastal Plains
Brown
Western Cordillera
Pink
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The Appalachian region is a place with lots of
mountains on the east coast of North
America.
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The climate of the Appalachian Region is
affected by two ocean currents. The labrabor
current bring cold water south from the arctic
and causes freezing during the winter months
in the northern parts of the region.
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The Appalachian Region was heavily forested
with mixed coniferous and deciduous tree.
These could survive in the poor and
unproductive mountain soil, and flourish on
plateaus and in the river valleys, where the
soil was much more productive.
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The coastal plains region starts at cape cod
and runs all the way south to Florida. The are
also coastal plains in Alaska on the north
coast. There is a coastal plain in Canada in the
Yukon it is on the north shore and west of the
Mackenzie river.

In the north, the climate is cold snowy
winters, and hot humid summers.

The vegetation is small, wet, soggey and hard
to grow things there.

The Interior Plains are a vast sweep of plain, but
they are not entirly flat. In most places the land
is composed of gently rolling fills and deep river
valleys. In the United States, the Interior Plains
run between the Appalachian Mountains, on the
east coast. In Canada, the Interior Plains run
between the Canadaian sheild and the Rocky
Mountains. From north to south, the Intearior
Plains extend from the gulf of Mexico to the
Arctic Ocean.
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The climate Interior Plains is a continental
climate, affected by its location in the heart
of the continent far from the moderating
influence of the oceans. It is a climate of
extremes, including long, hot, summers ,cold
winters, and little precipitation.

Originally, the central lowland east of the
Mississippi was covered with deciduous trees
and scattered evergreens. West of the
Mississippi, in the Great Plains, prairie grass
grew as tall as a person. The natural vegetation
of the Canadian prairies was also grasslands
trees grew only in the river valleys. In the
northern portion of the Interior Plains, boreal
forest grow, gradually become tundra towards
the Arctic Ocean.

The Canadian shield is more the 2 billion
years old. It consists of volcanic mountains
that were leveled by millions of years of
erosion. It is the geographic foundation of
Canada.

The climate varies thought out the vast area
covered by the Canadian shield. As you travel
north, the winters become increasingly long
and cold, with the summers becoming
shorter and cooler.

Boreal cover most of the shield, since
evergreen, such as spruce, pine, and fir, are
more suited to the thin, sandy soil. Some
deciduous trees, such as poplar and white
birch, are also present.

The impact of acid rain and smelting on the
local environment was devastating. By the
1970s, decades of mining and smelting had
left soils on local sites so acidic that nothing
would grow. Some 10,000 hectares had been
made into nothing.
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The Arctic in northern Canada is a
combination of lowlands and mountains. The
lowlands are found in a series of islands lying
to the north of Hudson Bay. The mountains
are found in the extreme northwest border.

The Arctic climate is very severe because it is
so far from the equator. Winter lasts for ten
months in the far north. Summer is very
short, and not very warm . Because it has
little precipitation, the Arctic is actually a
desert.
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The climate is changing in the arctic. It is getting warmer. The sea ice is melting negative effect on
the Ice dependent sea mammals. Increasing average temperatures are melting glaciers and polar
ice caps and raising sea levels, putting coastal areas at greater risk of flooding. Mounting
evidence indicates that these changes are not the result of the natural variability of climate. The
theory of human-induced climate change is supported by numerous respected scientific bodies,
including the British Royal Society, the American National Academies and the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
Changes to Vegetation1. tree are growing farther north
2. permafrost is melting turning land into wet lands
3. mosses are dying.
Changes to fish: The timing of the melting of sea ice in the spring and the summer affects algae
growth at the ice edge and the population of krill, important food supplies for many animals,
including the Arctic cod, which is prey for belugas, narwhals, and seals. Changes to sea ice would
therefore have important effects that would be seen throughout the Arctic food web.
Changes to Terrestrial Mammals: Several caribou herds are decreasing, and some caribou are
endangered. Climate change maybe decreasing, as it may change extreme weather events and
forage availability.
Changes to Marine Mammals: the sea ice is decreasing and this will change where the the
mammals go, how far they go, where they migrate, and they reproduction. the reduced ice
cover and access to seals would limit hunting success by polar bears, which decreases bear
populations.
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The Western Cordillera region runs along the
west coast of North America. It consists of range
after range of mountains, separated by plateaus
and valleys. The Rocky Mountains are the most
easterly range of mountains of the region. In
the US, they veer towards the interior of the
continent, to a great extent. The coastal chains
of mountains are volcanic mountains, but the
inner ranges of mountains (The Rocky
Mountains) are fold mountains.
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The climate of the Intermountain Region is
affected by its location and by its elevation.
Winters can be cool and wet of hot and dry,
depending on the region. In the southern
portions of the region, winters are short and
warm with very little precipitaion, althought
the climate is more moderate, with moist
winters and hot dry summers.
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Very few life forms, beyond lichen, can grow
on the mountains of the Arctic. Trees cannot
grow on the tundra, either, because the
climate is too cold and dry, and only a small
amount of thawing occurs during the
summer. Small shrubs, mosses, and lichens
are the only thing that can grow. The cling to
the ground, soaking up the small amount of
warmth and moisture available.
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Environmental concerns in the Canadian
Shield
The impact of acid rain and smelting on the
local environment was devastating. By the
1970s, decades of mining and smelting had
left soils on local sites so acidic that nothing
would grow. Some 10,000 hectares had been
made into nothing.
The intermountain Region is an area in the US
and Canada the lies between the Rocky
Mountains and the Coast Mountains, the
Cascades, and the sierra Nevada. It is a thinly
populated area of high plateaus and isolated
mountains, and contains the only desert in
the US. In Canada, the region consists of the
interior plateau valleys of British Columbia
and the Yukon

The climate of the intermountain Region is
affected by its location and by levitation.
Winters can be cool and wet of hot and dry,
depending on the region. In the southern
portions of the region, winters are short and
warm with very little precipitation. The
northern portions of the region also lacks
precipitation, although the climate is more
moderate, with moist winters and hot dry
summers.
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The vegetation of the Intermountain Region
generally ranges between sparse grassland to
plants that can survive in semi-desert or
desert conditions. The higher areas are
covered in thin pine forest.
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Environmental concerns in the intermountain region
Serious problems have arisen as a result of timber
harvesting, grazing, oil exploration, mining, and reservoir
operations in the intermountain. Logging and oil
exploration have been responsible for accelerated
slope erosion both from the operations themselves and
from the access roads built to reach them. Erosion has
stripped away the often thin soil cover and caused serious
silting of streams. Trace quantities of harmful metals have
been released into streams and groundwater from mining
operations, particularly from the leaching of mill tailings.
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The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowland is the
small geographical region in Canada. It
includes the triangle formed by Lakes Huron,
Ontario, and Erie. The region contains several
escarpments, the best known being the
Niagara Escarpment, which extends from
Niagara Falls to Manitoulin Island. The region
is also cut by a short extension of the shield
near Kingston, and then continues along the
St. Lawrence River.
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The climate is essentially a humid continental
climate. It is humid because of the presence
of the Great Lake. The Great Lake tend to
cool the temperature during the summer. By
storing heat, The Great Lakes warm the
surrounding areas in the winter. Winters vary
from cool to cold, and summers from warm
to hot.
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Originally this region, which has very fertile
soils, was heavily treed. The Great Lakes
portion once had Canada’s largest broadleafed forest, because its soil climate
condions allowed maple, beech, hickory, and
walnut trees too thrive. Elsewhere in the
region the vegetation was mixed forest of
both deciduous and conifers, such as maple,
beech, oak, ash, and birch, along with spruce,
fir, pine and cedar.
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http://thecommonwealth.org/our-membercountries/canada
https://sites.google.com/site/intermountainr
egionhannan/vegetation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermountain_
West