The Central European mixed forestsecoregion (WWF ID: PA0412) is a temperate hardwood forest covering much of northeastern Europe, from Germany to Russia. The area is only about one-third forested, with pressure from human agriculture leaving the rest in a patchwork of traditional pasture, meadows, wetlands. The ecoregion is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome, and the Palearctic realm, with a Humid Continental climate. It covers 731,154 km2 (282,300 sq mi).[2]
Location and description
The ecoregion covers the formerly-glaciated central plains of Central Europe, from eastern Germany and the shores of the Baltic Sea, through large parts of the Czech Republic, Poland, Southern Lithuania, Belarus, Western and Central Ukraine, and a part of Russia (in Bryansk and Kaliningrad Oblasts). The terrain is mostly flat lowlands in the center, hilly moraine-dominated in the north, and uplands to the south along the Carpathian Mountains.[2][3] To the north is the Sarmatic mixed forests ecoregion, the forests of which feature more spruce and pine. To the east is the East European forest steppe, in which the forest stands thin out into grasslands. To the south is the Carpathian montane forests ecoregion, featuring mountain pastures and forests of beech, spruce, elm, and dwarf pine.[2] Also to the north are the Baltic mixed forests of oaks, hornbeam, and linden trees on flat, acidic soils. To the west is the Western European broadleaf forests ecoregion, which is now mostly cultivated agricultural land.
Climate
The portions of the ecoregion in Germany and western Poland have a climate that is classified as Marine west coast (Cfb). The eastern part has a climate of Humid continental climate, warm summer (Köppen climate classification(Dfb)). This climate is characterized by large seasonal temperature differentials and a warm summer (at least four months averaging over 10 °C (50 °F), but no month averaging over 22 °C (72 °F).[4][5] The summers become hotter and the winters colder as you move east across the ecoregion, due to the movement towards the center of the continent ("continentality"). The mean January temperature is −1 °C (30 °F) in Germany to −6 °C (21 °F) in Belarus. Precipitation average between 500 mm and 700 mm, mostly falling during the summer growing season.[3]
Flora and fauna
Oak forests are characteristic throughout the region, with some pine forests in the north. Forest cover ranges from 15% in Ukraine to 33% in the Czech Republic.[3] The most common tree in the ecoregion, covering half of the forested area, is Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), Norway spruce (Picea abies), English oak (Quercus robur), Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), and Silver birch (Betula pendula), which has been planted extensively over the past 200 years.[3] The truly mixed deciduous forests have been replaced mostly by agriculture. The non-forested areas are largely meadows and pastures dedicated to human agricultural uses. There are also extensive wetlands in the lowlands.
The wetlands support diverse bird communities, but mammals are heavily pressured by human land use. Because of the uniformity of the terrain and openness to other regions, there are no endemic species in the ecoregion. In some countries, 20-30 of the mammal species are threatened.[3]
The Białowieża Forest on the Belarus-Poland border is home to one of the last herds of European bison, also known as wisent, the heaviest surviving wild land animal in Europe[6][7] Historically, the wisent's range encompassed all of the European lowlands, extending from the Massif Central to the Caucasus. Its range decreased as growing human populations cut down trees. The European bison became extinct in southern Sweden in the 11th century, and southern England in the 12th century. The species survived in the Ardennes and the Vosges until the 15th century before being hunted to extinction. In mid-16th century Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund II Augustus pronounced a death penalty for poaching a European bison in Białowieża.[8] Despite these measures, its population continued to decline. During World War I, occupying German troops killed 600 wisent for food, hides, and horns.[9] The last wild European bison in Poland was killed in 1919. They were reintroduced from captivity.[8]
The history of Central European forests is characterised by thousands of years of exploitation by people. Thus a distinction needs to be made between the botanical natural history of the forest in pre- and proto-historical times—which falls mainly into the fields of natural history and Paleobotany—and the onset of the period of sedentary settlement which began at the latest in the Neolithic era in Central Europe - and thus the use of the forest by people, which is covered by the disciplines of history, archaeology, cultural studies and ecology.
The term Central Europe is generally used both geographically and ecologically to describe the area that lies roughly between the North Sea, the Alps, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.
Protected areas
The Central European mixed forests has been affected heavily by human activity.
19.86% of the ecoregion is in protected areas.[1] Most protected areas are small and fragmented. Some of the large, or more representative, protected areas in the ecoregion include:
Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve, stretches along the Elbe River in Saxon-Anhalt, Germany, covering the largest river-meadow complex in Middle Europe. (Area: 430 km2)
^"Large herbivores". European bison (Bison bonasus). WWF Global. November 13, 2005. Archived from the original(Internet Archive) on August 13, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
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