Is much of Western Washington Essentially Taiga Biome due to recent Ice Age?

[grega94]

Here are the most common tree species in the lowlands of western WA

Coniferous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_fir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuga_heterophylla
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuja_plicata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abies_grandis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_sitchensis

Broad leaf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_macrophyllum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnus_rubra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_trichocarpa

Evergreen Broad leaf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_menziesii

[harrishawke]

Western Balsam Fir grows in Washington and in the Taiga Regions. There may be others, that is just that one that stood out.

BTW Norfolk Island is an outlier. It's a mild climate surrounded by a cold water ocean with 47" of rain/year.

[grega94]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

Western Balsam Fir grows in Washington and in the Taiga Regions. There may be others, that is just that one that stood out.

BTW Norfolk Island is an outlier. It's a mild climate surrounded by a cold water ocean with 47" of rain/year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abies_lasiocarpa is an alpine species, it doesn't grow in the lowlands

And no the Norfolk pine is not an outlier, there are many tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, particularly in Mexico





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic...ferous_forests

[grega94]

Originally Posted by Seacove

I believe we are in a temperate coniferous forest biome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temper...iferous_forest

Moist Temperate Coniferous Forest Biome

and more specifically temperate rainforest

[Ruth4Truth]

I didn't know Yunnan Province, and also Taiwan were temperate rain forest. Japan and Korea, too.And southwestern Norway. And all of Ireland? I guess it makes sense; it's certainly rainy. I've just never heard it referred to as "rainforest".

Thanks, Grega!

[dozerbear]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

So what about the Mountains in the Olympic National Park and Mt Rainier area? Is that more like Taiga or Boreal forests, or is it still considered Alpine? Seems like 10,000 years ago it most certainly would be ecologically, and much of the fauna and flora remained to this day.

10,000 years ago southwestern Washington and Oregon were mid taiga, described as "conifer or broadleaf forest with a relatively open canopy." From about Olympia north and all of the Cascades were still classified forest steppe (mainly herbaceous, but with clumps of trees or bushes in favorable pockets) possibly (at least in part) due to the cooling effect of the ice sheet that still covered most of interior British Columbia and the north Cascades. Here's a map at 10,000 years ago, then 8,000.



The Global Atlas of Palaeovegetation classifies western Washington and Oregon as southern taiga, defined as "needle-leaf conifers, tall, very dense canopy cover, cover above 25' greater than 90%, greater than 50% conifer cover." Which would certainly apply to most of western Washington. Map of current classifications.

Their definition of "cool temperate forest" is "Closed forest. Includes mixed conifer-broadleaved forest, cover above 25' less than 60%, less than 50% of this by needle-leaf trees, greater than 50% of broadleaved leaves lost in winter." This would apply to most of New England and Appalachia, but not the northwest, except for a few small pockets where conditions allow them to become the climax tree.

Their rainforest definition. "Cool temperate giant coniferous rainforest. Very tall, closed conifer forest; usually Pseudotsuga [Douglas fir]or Seqouia, greater than 50% cover above 130' off the ground."
https://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/gen/adams3.html

The link jacqueg posted temperate rainforest as : "An area with cool winters and mild summers and an incredible 100 to 200 inch annual precipitation." This would only apply to a few areas in the Olympics and west slopes of the Cascades.
And "coniferous forest" is defined as "Taiga, Boreal forest." Described as, temperatures can fall as low as -40F and average summer temps of 50F, "soil is thin and there is a lack of earth churning invertebrates, like earthworms." None of this applies to anywhere in western Washington.

It seems western Washington could be called taiga, depending on the classification system used.