Deciduous Forests
The temperate deciduous broadleaf forest (TDBF) is composed of broad-leaf angiosperm trees like the oaks, maples, and beeches familiar to many Americans and Europeans. The forests exist best in moderate climates that are neither too hot nor too cold and neither too wet nor too dry. In addition to the temperate zone, deciduous forests are found in tropical and sub-tropical climates in open savannas and/or in closed forests. While there are roughly thirty families and sixty-five genera in the TDBF, variation in the precise definition and defined area of the forest make absolute numbers impossible. With thousands of species, the TDBF is a highly diverse biome.
North American Temperate Deciduous Broadleaf Forest
Worldwide, there are five major groups of TDBFs. Within each group, botanists define TDBFs by the species that tend to occur in a given area. These collections of species, together with their environment, are called associations. Eastern North America today contains the most extensive TDBF. The forest reaches from about longitude 95°W (just west of the Mississippi River) to the Atlantic coast and from 30 to 45°N, thereby forming a quadrant that includes most of the northeastern quarter of the United States. The eastern United States TDBF was almost completely deforested for agricultural purposes by 1850.
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