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Western montane forests

  • Chapter
Physiological Ecology of North American Plant Communities

Abstract

The Rocky Mountain, Sierra Nevada, Wasatch, and Cascade mountain ranges form the Cordilleran pro-vince (Gleason and Cronquist, 1964) and contain the Transition and Canadian zones of Merriam&#x2019s early life zone classification (Merriam, 1898). In general, these temperate mountainous regions are dominated by evergreen coniferous forests that occur between elevations of about 2500–4200m in the southwestern US and from 1700–3500 m near the US-Canada border. These forests are considered to be a southern extension of the transcontinental forests of Canada where lack of moisture and warmer temperatures has resulted in only relict forests on the tops of a few high desert mountains in the southwest USA. Although species diversity may be considerably greater in transition areas, nearly monospecific stands of conifers are often found over broad elevational limits.

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  1. Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University, USA

    Brian F. Chabot

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, USA

    Harold A. Mooney

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Smith, W.K. (1985). Western montane forests. In: Chabot, B.F., Mooney, H.A. (eds) Physiological Ecology of North American Plant Communities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4830-3_5

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