The Copper Plateau taiga is an ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

 of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Commission for Environmental Cooperation

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation was established by Canada, Mexico, and the United States to implement the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation , the environmental side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement...

, in the Taiga and Boreal forests

Taiga

Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...

, Biome

Biome

Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...

, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

.

Setting

This ecoregion consists of a large flat plateau in southeastern Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 at 400-900m above sea level, surrounded by the high mountains and dotted with many lakes and marshes. The area is almost entirely within the Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve while the Denali Highway

Denali Highway

Denali Highway is a lightly traveled, mostly gravel highway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It leads from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway. Opened in 1957, it was the first road access to Denali National Park...

 crosses the ecoregion in the northwest. This a very wet and damp region with up to 460mm of rainfall per year and with temperatures ranging from -27°C in winter to 21°C in summer there are patches of shallow permafrost

Permafrost

In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...

.

Flora

To survive here plants have to be adapted to the damp conditions and the dominant tree is black spruce picea mariana while the boggier areas have the dwarf birches Betula glandulosa and betula nana) along with shrubs and sedge

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

s such as Eriophorum angustifolium and carex

Carex

Carex is a genus of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Other members of the Cyperaceae family are also called sedges, however those of genus Carex may be called "true" sedges, and it is the most species-rich genus in the family. The study of Carex is known as...

and herbs such as Menyanthes trifoliata, Petasites frigidus

Petasites frigidus

Petasites frigidus is a species of Petasites native to Arctic to cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.It is a herbaceous perennial plant producing flowering stems in early spring, and large leaves through the summer...

and Potentilla palustris

Potentilla palustris

Comarum palustre , known by the common names Purple Marshlocks, Swamp Cinquefoil and Marsh Cinquefoil, is a common waterside shrub. It has a Circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, particularly the northern regions...

. Well-drained areas have communities of white spruce Picea glauca, black cottonwood Populus trichocarpa

Populus trichocarpa

Populus trichocarpa is a deciduous broadleaf tree species native to western North America. It is used for timber, and is notable as a model organism in plant biology. Its full genome sequence was published in 2006...

and quaking aspen Populus tremuloides

Populus tremuloides

Populus tremuloides is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, commonly called quaking aspen, trembling aspen, American aspen, and Quakies,. The trees have tall trunks, up to 25 metres, with smooth pale bark, scarred with black. The glossy green leaves, dull beneath, become golden...

.

Fauna

Lake Louise

Lake Louise, Alaska

Lake Louise is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. Although it is an isolated settlement and is close to Glennallen, it is considered part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area like all other locations in the Mat-Su Borough. At the 2000...

, Paxson Lake and the many other wetlands of the plain are nesting grounds for may birds including the Trumpeter Swan

Trumpeter Swan

The Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator, is the largest native North American bird, if measured in terms of weight and length, and is the largest living waterfowl species on earth. It is the North American counterpart of the European Whooper Swan.-Description:Males typically measure from and weigh...

, the largest bird in North America. The Copper River

Copper River (Alaska)

The Copper River or Ahtna River is a 300-mile river in south-central Alaska in the United States. It drains a large region of the Wrangell Mountains and Chugach Mountains into the Gulf of Alaska...

 is home to salmon especially Chinook Salmon

Chinook salmon

The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is the largest species in the pacific salmon family. Other commonly used names for the species include King salmon, Quinnat salmon, Spring salmon and Tyee salmon...

 and Sockeye Salmon

Sockeye salmon

Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon in the USA, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it...

. Mammals include the Nelchina caribou herd that migrates across the western side of the plain.

Threats and preservation

Habitat has been lost to development around Glenallen

Glennallen, Alaska

Glennallen is a census-designated place in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population of the CDP was 554.- Location :...

 and to logging along the Copper River and on Alaska Native Regional Corporations

Alaska Native Regional Corporations

The Alaska Native Regional Corporations were established in 1971 when the United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act which settled land and financial claims made by the Alaska Natives and provided for the establishment of 13 regional corporations to administer those...

 land near Chitina.

See also

• List of ecoregions in the United States (WWF)
• List of ecoregions in the United States (EPA) (the Copper Plateau taiga is no 117)