Ecozones of Canada

This article is about Environment and Climate Change Canada classifications. For an alternate classification system, see List of ecoregions in Canada (WWF).

Ecozones and ecoprovinces of Canada, 2017

Canada is divided into 15 ecozones, forming the country's first level of ecological land classification. They represent areas of the earth's surface representative of large and very generalized ecological units characterized by interactive and adjusting biotic and abiotic factors. These ecozones can be further subdivided into 53 ecoprovinces, 194 ecoregions, and 1,027 ecodistricts.

History

In 1991, a collaborative project was undertaken by a number of federal agencies in cooperation with provincial and territorial governments to establish a common ecological framework for Canada. The resulting report, A National Ecological Framework for Canada, released by the Ecological Stratification Working Group in 1995, established the 20 ecozones (15 terrestrial and 5 marine), 194 ecoregions, and 1,031 ecodistricts of Canada. A second report published in 1999 established the 53 ecoprovinces of Canada in accordance with the requirements of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

In 2010, Environment Canada published the report Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystem Status and Trends 2010 utilizing a modified hierarchy called "Ecozone+". Major modifications included adjustments to terrestrial boundaries to reflect improvements in ground truthing, the combining of three Arctic ecozones, and the addition of two ecoprovinces (Western Interior Basin and Newfoundland Boreal) and nine marine ecosystem-based units.

In 2014, the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas (CCEA) released an update to the first digital version of the Canadian Ecological Framework. The new spatial framework was designed to replace the 1995 ecological framework as well as the Ecozone+ framework used in the Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystem Status and Trends 2010 Report. This new ecozone map includes 18 terrestrial, 12 marine and 1 freshwater ecozone, the latter two of which were derived from the marine bioregions outlined by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2009.

On November 20, 2017, Statistics Canada approved the Ecological Land Classification (ELC) framework as the official government standard in classifying the ecological regions of Canada. This framework mirrors that which was originally established in 1995, but revises number of ecodisiricts to 1,027 in order to better align them with the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) database of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Though this framework originally included 5 marine ecozones, these were never formally adopted by Statistics Canada.

Terrestrial ecozones

Canada is divided into 18 terrestrial ecozones covering a total area of 9,891,584 km² (3,819,162 sq mi).

Code	Ecozone	Area (km²)	Percent total area	Percent protected
01	Arctic Cordillera	233,619	2.4	22.5
02	Northern Arctic	1,481,481	15.0	7.1
03	Southern Arctic	957,139	9.7	17.1
04	Taiga Plains	554,013	5.6	10.9
05	Taiga Shield	1,322,786	13.4	10.0
06	Boreal Shield	1,897,364	19.2	9.9
07	Atlantic Maritime	110,590	1.1	8.5
08	Mixedwood Plains	116,206	1.2	2.0
09	Boreal Plains	779,471	7.9	8.7
10	Prairies	465,990	4.7	6.0
11	Taiga Cordillera	231,161	2.3	9.3
12	Boreal Cordillera	557,937	5.6	17.3
13	Pacific Maritime	216,942	2.2	24.2
14	Montane Cordillera	437,761	4.4	18.8
15	Hudson Plains	350,693	3.5	12.5
Total	9,891,584	100.0	11.3

Marine ecozones

The Canadian marine ecozones adjoin to each other, except for the Pacific ecozone which is adjacent to international marine ecozones and terrestrial Canadian ecozones. The largest is the Arctic Archipelago, which actually extends to subarctic regions.

Ecozone	Area (km²) Territorial waters	Area (km²) Exclusive Economic Zone	Percentage of total area (for EEZ)	Percentage of marine area (for EEZ)
Pacific Marine	102,920	457,646	3.1	8.3
Arctic Basin Marine	24,997	704,849	4.8	12.7
Arctic Archipelago Marine	2,051,393	2,178,998	14.8	39.3
Northwest Atlantic Marine	536,895	1,205,981	8.2	21.8
Atlantic Marine	72,144	996,439	6.8	17.9
Total	2,788,349	5,543,913	37.7	100.0

See also

• Forests of Canada#Regions
• List of ecoregions of the United States (EPA)

External links

• National Ecological Framework for Canada interactive map by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2016
• Ecozones of Canada / Écozones du Canada Canadian Council on Ecological Areas, 2014 Update
• Terrestrial Ecozones and Ecoregions of Canada map by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Environment Canada, 1995
• Canada's Ecozones from the Canadian Biodiversity Project at McGill University's Redpath Museum