The Southern Great Lakes lowland forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of North America, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. Located near the Great Lakes, it lies mostly in the central northeastern United States and extends into southeast central Canada. In modern times, little of it remains intact due to land use, including agriculture and urban uses.

Southern Great Lakes forests
South Chagrin River near Cleveland, Ohio
Ecology
Realm	Nearctic
Biome	Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Borders	List Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests Allegheny Highlands forests Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests Central U.S. hardwood forests Central forest-grasslands transition Western Great Lakes forests Upper Midwest forest-savanna transition
Bird species	220[1]
Mammal species	56[1]
Geography
Area	244,500 km2 (94,400 sq mi)
Countries	United States and Canada
States/Provinces	Michigan, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Indiana
Climate type	Humid continental (some areas with cooler summers)
Conservation
Conservation status	Critical/Endangered[2]
Habitat loss	99%[1]

Setting

This area includes the southern half of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, and much of Indiana and Ohio.[2] It also extends through the southern half of Southwest Ontario from Windsor to Toronto and into Pennsylvania and New York on the southern rims of lakes Erie and Ontario.

This region is characterized by warm-to-hot summers and mild-to-cold, snowy winters.

Flora

This ecoregion is associated with the temperate deciduous forest to the south and thus contained a variety of habitats including freshwater marshes, dunes, bogs, fens, and hardwood and conifer swamps.

Fauna

The Southern Great Lakes forests were very rich in wildlife. Birds include cardinals, downy woodpecker, wood duck and eastern screech owl. Large mammals including American black bear (Ursus americanus), moose (Alces alces), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), cougar (Puma concolor), caribou (Rangifer tarandus), elk (Cervus canadensis) and gray wolf (Canis lupus) have been mostly or completely extirpated from this ecoregion; remaining mammals include white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), coyote (Canis latrans), snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus), American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Threats and preservation

Because of extensive urbanization and agricultural use very little of this habitat remains intact.

See also

• List of ecoregions in Canada (WWF)
• List of ecoregions in the United States (WWF)

References

• "Southern Great Lakes Forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
• World Wildlife Fund, ed. (2001). "Southern Great Lakes forests". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08.

External links

• Central U.S. hardwood forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• Southern Great Lakes forests