Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests

Please note: These biome and ecoregion pages (and associated data) are no longer being updated and may now be out of date. These pages and data exist for historical reference only. For updated bioregion data, please visit One Earth.

Trees in autumn colors in Lazovsky State Nature Reserve, which is now considered one of the most important nature reserves in Russia. Boreal forest. Sikhote-Alin mountain ridge, Primorye region, Far East. Russian Federation.  Forests in the temperate world experience a wide range of variability in temperature and precipitation. In regions where rainfall is broadly distributed throughout the year, deciduous trees mix with species of evergreens. Species such as oak (Quercus spp.), beech (Fagus spp.), birch (Betupa spp.), and maple (Acer spp.) typify the composition of the Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests (TBMF).


Structurally, these forests are characterized by 4 layers: a canopy composed of mature full-sized dominant species and a slightly lower layer of mature trees, a shrub layer, and understory layer of grasses and other herbaceous plants. In contrast to tropical rain forests, most biodiversity is concentrated much closer to the forest floor.

 
TBMF are richest and most distinctive in central China and eastern North America, with some other globally distinctive ecoregions in the Caucasus, the Himalayas, southern Europe, and the Russian Far East.

Biodiversity Patterns
Most dominant species have widespread distributions, but in many ecoregions there can be a large number of ecoregional and local endemics; beta diversity can be high for plants, invertebrates, and some smaller vertebrates in some ecoregions; unusual soils can harbor many specialist plants and invertebrates; some ecoregions can have very high alpha and gamma diversity for plants, particularly understory species and herbaceous floras. Altitudinal specialization occurs but is less pronounced than in the tropics.

Minimum Requirements
Larger native carnivores require large natural landscapes to persist, periodic large-scale disturbance events such as fire necessitate the conservation of large blocks of forest; many species of plants, lichen, fungi, and invertebrates depend upon late-successional forests.

Sensitivity to Disturbance
Certain species are highly sensitive to habitat fragementation, such as breeding songbirds exposed to parasitism or elevated nest predation; many forest understory species are also unable to cross deforested areas; restoration potential for these forests is high; exotic species can have extensive and significant impacts on native communities; the loss of large native predators has many cascading impacts on forest structure and ecology.

Australasia

Western part of New Zealand's South Island
Tasmania, south of Australia
Tasmania, south of Australia
Tasmania, south of Australia
Southeastern Australia
Northern part of New Zealand's South Island
Island off the southern tip of New Zealand
Northern part of New Zealand's North Island
New Zealand's North Island
Northwestern part of New Zealand's South Island
Southwestern part of New Zealand's South Island
East coast of Australia
Chatham Island, east of New Zealand

Indo-Malayan

Southern Asia: Northern regions of India and Pakistan into Nepal
Northern Triangle temperate forests
Southern Asia: Stretching from Nepal into eastern India

Nearctic

Willamette Valley forests
Western Great Lakes forests
Upper Midwest forest-savanna transition
Southern Great Lakes forests
Southeastern mixed forests
Ozark Mountain forests
Northeastern coastal forests
New England-Acadian forests
Mississippi lowland forests
Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests
Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests
Eastern forest-boreal transition
East Central Texas forests
Central U.S. hardwood forests
Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests
Allegheny Highlands forests
Southern North America: Eastern Mexico into southwestern United States
Southern North America: Western Mexico into the southwestern United States

Neotropical

Southern South America: Chile and Argentina
Islands off the coast of central Chile in the Pacific Ocean
South America: Chile and Argentina
Island group off the coast of central Chile in the Pacific Ocean

Palearctic

Western Iran
Western European broadleaf forests
Western Siberian hemiboreal forests
Eastern Asia: Eastern Russia
Central Asia: Western China
Eastern Asia: Eastern Japan, stretching southward
Eastern Asia: Southern Japan
Eastern Asia: Southern tip of the Korean Peninsula
Russia
Eastern Asia: Southern China
Southern Europe: Bulgaria with small extensions into Greece, Macedonia, and Yugoslavia.
Eastern Asia: Eastern China
Southwest Europe: In the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain, France, and Andorra
Southern Europe: Northern Italy stretching to the shore of the Adriatic Sea
Eastern Europe: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine
Southern Asia, in China
Western Europe: Northern and eastern United Kingdom (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and Ireland
Eastern Asia: Western Honshu Island, Japan
Eastern Asia: Southern Honshu Island, Japan
Eastern Asia: Korea, China, and Russia
Madeira evergreen forests
Eastern Asia: Island of Hokkaido, Japan
Euxine-Colchic broadleaf forests
Western Europe: Southern England, United Kingdom
Turkey
Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine
Eastern Europe: along the Adriatic coast of Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, northern Italy, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia
Eastern Asia: Eastern China
Central Asia: Southwest Russia and the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea coast
Southern Asia, in China
Eastern Asia: China and North Korea
Eastern Asia: Central Korean Penninsula
Central Europe: Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Moldovia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine
Southern Asia: China
Western Asia: Central Turkey
Celtic broadleaf forests
Western Asia: Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia
Central Asia: Northern Iran into southern Azerbaijan
Cantabrian mixed forests
Northern Europe: Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland
Eastern Europe: Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia
Azores temperate mixed forests
Western Europe: France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark
Appenine deciduous montane forests
Eastern Asia: Southeastern China
Asia: in the Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei Provinces of China