The Taiga Plain is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 terrestrial ecozone

Ecozones of Canada

The ecozones of Canada consist of fifteen terrestrial and five marine ecozones in Canada. These are further subdivided into 53 ecoprovinces, 194 ecoregions, and 1021 ecodistricts...

 that covers most of the western Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

, extending to northwest Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, northeast British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 and slightly overlapping northeastern Yukon

Yukon

Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....

.

It is the site of the Peace-Athabasca Delta

Peace-Athabasca Delta

The Peace–Athabasca Delta is a large freshwater, inland delta in northeastern Alberta located where the Peace and Athabasca Rivers join the Slave River at the western end of Lake Athabasca.-Conservation :...

,a globally significant wetland in Wood Buffalo National Park

Wood Buffalo National Park

Wood Buffalo National Park, located in northeastern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories, is the largest national park in Canada at . The park was established in 1922 to protect the world's largest herd of free roaming Wood Bison, currently estimated at more than 5,000...

, and Nahanni National Park Reserve

Nahanni National Park Reserve

Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, approximately west of Yellowknife, protects a portion of the Mackenzie Mountains Natural Region. The centrepiece of the park is the South Nahanni River. Four noteworthy canyons reaching in depth, called...

.

Geography

Its eastern boundary is defined by Great Bear

Great Bear Lake

Great Bear Lake is the largest lake entirely within Canada , the third or fourth largest in North America, and the seventh or eighth largest in the world...

 and Great Slave

Great Slave Lake

Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada , the deepest lake in North America at , and the ninth-largest lake in the world. It is long and wide. It covers an area of in the southern part of the territory. Its given volume ranges from to and up to ...

 lakes in the Taiga Shield

Taiga Shield

The Taiga Shield Ecozone is an ecozone which stretches across Canada's subarctic region. Some regions exhibit exposed Precambrian bedrock of the Canadian Shield, the oldest of the world's geological formations...

, site of the world's oldest known rock formations. To its south are the Boreal Plains

Boreal Plains

The Boreal Plains Ecozone is an ecozone in the western Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It also has minor extensions into northeastern British Columbia and south-central Northwest Territories....

, a vast forest of spruce

Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

 and other timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

 with numerous wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

 habitats. Portions of Wood Buffalo National Park and Whooping Crane Summer Range

Whooping Crane Summer Range

Whooping Crane Summer Range is a 16,895 km² wetland complex in the boreal forests of northern Alberta and southwestern Northwest Territories in Canada. It is the only natural nesting habitat for the critically endangered whooping crane...

, the only nesting area for the critically endangered whooping crane

Whooping Crane

The whooping crane , the tallest North American bird, is an endangered crane species named for its whooping sound. Along with the Sandhill Crane, it is one of only two crane species found in North America. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22 to 24 years in the wild...

, overlap onto the Taiga Plains from the Boreal Plains. To the west it abuts the foothills of the Boreal Cordillera

Boreal Cordillera

The Boreal Cordillera is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone occupying most of the northern third of British Columbia and southern half of the Yukon. Within it is found Kluane National Park and Reserve, and a small portion of the southern range of Nahanni National Park Reserve. Most of the area's...

 in British Columbia and southern Yukon, and the Taiga Cordillera

Taiga Cordillera

The Taiga Cordillera is a rugged, mountainous terrestrial ecozone of Canada spanning most of northern Yukon and significant portions of the border between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories....

 further north. These two ecozones comprise the Mackenzie Mountains

Mackenzie Mountains

The Mackenzie Mountains are a mountain range forming part of the Yukon-Northwest Territories boundary between the Liard and Peel rivers. The range is named in honour of Canada's second Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. Nahanni National Park Reserve is in the Mackenzie Mountains.The Mackenzie...

. Its northern borders are with the Southern Arctic

Southern Arctic

The Southern Arctic Ecozone is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone which spans the northern coast of mainland Northwest Territories, most of northern mainland Nunavut excepting the northeast peninsula, and a portion of northwestern Quebec...

 ecozone in northeastern Northwest Territories, and the Arctic Archipelago Marine

Arctic Archipelago Marine

The Arctic Archipelago Marine Ecozone is a marine ecozone in the Canadian arctic, encompassing Hudson Bay, James Bay, the internal waters and some shores of the islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and the shores of the territories, northern Ontario and western Quebec...

 ecozone at the delta of Canada's largest river, the Mackenzie

Mackenzie River

The Mackenzie River is the largest river system in Canada. It flows through a vast, isolated region of forest and tundra entirely within the country's Northwest Territories, although its many tributaries reach into four other Canadian provinces and territories...

.

The ecozone consists primarily of strata

Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...

 of limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

, shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

, and sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....

s, and has formed wide flat plains with rolling terrain throughout. The sedimentary layers contain
some "rich natural reservoirs of oil and gas". The western portion, dominated by the Mackenzie, is more rugged with deep canyons and trenches cut by the river and its tributaries.

Climate

Summers are cool and short in this sub-arctic climate, with mean temperatures ranging from 7ºC in the north to 14ºC in the south. Winters are long and very cold in the Mackenzie Delta, with a typical January mean of -26ºC, but are somewhat milder in the southern extent, with a mean January temperature of -15ºC. Little precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...

falls here, an annual average of 250 to 500 mm throughout the zone. Snow and ice cover lasts at least six months, and it is not unusual for it to persist for eight months.