{"id":159,"date":"2018-01-06T13:25:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T18:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=159"},"modified":"2018-01-06T13:26:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T18:26:16","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/chapter\/introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction","rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"\n<p>\u201cBeautiful British Columbia\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Best Place on Earth\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuper, Natural British Columbia\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These official slogans for British Columbia (BC) have all been inspired by the rugged physical geography that characterizes&nbsp;the province. Physical geography is the study of processes and patterns of the natural environment that creates these characteristic&nbsp;landscapes. Physical geography includes a diverse range of natural phenomena, studying, for example, the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and geosphere.&nbsp;In this chapter we will introduce several physical geography&nbsp;sub-disciplines as they relate to BC's&nbsp;different regions.<\/p>\n<h2>Overview of Regions in British Columbia<\/h2>\n<p>BC has an array of physical characteristics that&nbsp;make up its&nbsp;unique and diverse landscape. Because of the variety of&nbsp;physical and cultural regions, the province is sometimes called \"a region of regions\" (McGillivray, 2005).&nbsp;British Columbia is customarily divided into three main regions, the&nbsp;Interior, the&nbsp;Coast&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Lower Mainland. These are broken up by a loose and often overlapping system of cultural-geographic regions, often based on river basins but sometimes spanning them. Examples of the former are&nbsp;the&nbsp;Kootenays, the&nbsp;Okanagan, and the&nbsp;Chilcotin; examples of&nbsp;latter are&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lillooet country&nbsp;and&nbsp;the Cariboo. Important subareas of these include the&nbsp;Fraser Valley, part of the Lower Mainland, the&nbsp;Fraser Canyon&nbsp;(which overlaps with various regions) and the&nbsp;Robson Valley, which is the uppermost basin of the Fraser River southeast of Prince George. Vancouver Island is considered&nbsp;its own region, as are Haida Gwaii&nbsp;(Queen Charlotte Islands) and the&nbsp;Gulf Islands.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_178\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"400\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/06\/Aviv_mountainRange-03-e1406135622694.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-178\" alt=\"Figure 1. Physiographic region of British Columbia\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2018\/01\/Aviv_mountainRange-03-e1406135622694.png\" height=\"397\" width=\"400\"><\/a> Figure 8.1 Physiographic region of British Columbia[\/caption]\n<p>The spatial layout of major features of BC's physical geography are illustrated in the map in Figure 8.1, which displays some of the major mountain ranges: the Coast Mountains, Columbia Mountains, and Rocky Mountains and plateaus such as the Thomson and Chilcotin Plateaus.<\/p>\n<p>BC's&nbsp;complex landscape includes varied topography and&nbsp;physiography, many microclimates, and both&nbsp;terrestrial&nbsp;and&nbsp;marine&nbsp;ecosystems.&nbsp;Important characteristics of marine ecosystems include&nbsp;temperature, salinity, seabed configuration and water depth, whereas terrestrial ecosystems are heavily influenced by&nbsp;climatic zones that occur where specific soils, plant and animal communities, and aquatic systems interact with the geologic and geomorphic processes.&nbsp;Marine and terrestrial ecosystems interact to create a unique and vibrant coastal zone.<\/p>\n<p>There are several different <a href=\"http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>biogeoclimatic&nbsp;zones<\/strong><\/a>[footnote]see&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/<\/a> for more information on BC biogeoclimatic zones[\/footnote] that include diverse&nbsp;vegetation reflecting climatic and physiographic differences. These zones include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alpine tundra<\/li>\n<li>Spruce\u2014Willow\u2014Birch<\/li>\n<li>Boreal white and black spruce<\/li>\n<li>Sub-boreal pine\u2014spruce<\/li>\n<li>Sub-boreal spruce<\/li>\n<li>Mountain hemlock<\/li>\n<li>Engelmann spruce\u2014Subalpine fir<\/li>\n<li>Montane spruce<\/li>\n<li>Bunchgrass<\/li>\n<li>Ponderosa pine<\/li>\n<li>Interior Douglas-fir<\/li>\n<li>Coastal Douglas-fir<\/li>\n<li>Interior cedar\u2014hemlock<\/li>\n<li>Coastal western hemlock<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These biogeoclimatic zones are heavily influenced by the mountains landscape of BC, which has&nbsp;some of the highest mountains in North America. These ranges create orthographic effects, rain shadows and&nbsp; dramatic temperature changes over short horizontal differences.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table>\n<caption style=\"font-weight: bold\"><b>Table 8.1 British Columbia's principal mountains (by range &amp; height)<br>\n<\/b><\/caption>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Mountain (Range)<\/th>\n<th>Height (m)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Saint Elias Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fairweather Mountain&nbsp;(highest point on Alaska\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>4,663<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Quincy Adams&nbsp;(on Alaska\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>4,133<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Root&nbsp;(on Alaska\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>3,901<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Coast Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Waddington<\/td>\n<td>4,016<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Tiedemann<\/td>\n<td>3,848<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Combatant Mountain<\/td>\n<td>3,756<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><a title=\"Asperity Mountain\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Asperity_Mountain\"><\/a><strong>Rocky Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Serra Peaks (page does not exist)\" class=\"new\" style=\"color: #a55858\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Serra_Peaks&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\"><\/a>Mount Robson<\/td>\n<td>3,954<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Monarch Mountain\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Monarch_Mountain\"><\/a>Mount Columbia&nbsp;(on Alberta\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>3,747<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Clemenceau<\/td>\n<td>3,642<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Selkirk Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Mount Robson\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Robson\"><\/a>Mount Sir Sandford<\/td>\n<td>3,522<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><a title=\"Mount Columbia (Canada)\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Columbia_(Canada)\"><\/a><strong>Cariboo Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Mount Clemenceau\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Clemenceau\"><\/a>Mount Sir Wilfrid Laurier<\/td>\n<td>3,520<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Purcell Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Farnham<\/td>\n<td>3,481<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Monashee Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Monashee<\/td>\n<td>3,274<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>While the high mountains, especially the Rocky Mountains&nbsp;and Coast Mountains, are known for their cold temperatures, the coastal environment is warm and&nbsp;moist. This warmth and moisture is largely due to the North Pacific Current that runs west to east across the Pacific (stemming from the collision of the Oshiyo Current&nbsp;and Kuroshio Current). Warm ocean air drops most of its moisture as rain and snow as it rises over&nbsp;mountain ranges. This makes&nbsp;BC home to Canada's wettest climates and hence its most productive forests. The richness of natural resources available in BC are a result of its complex environment and varied ecoregions.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_179\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"400\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/06\/siobhan_landcover-06-e1406136682970.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-179\" alt=\"Figure 2. Land cover types in BC as percentage of total land area. This graphic highlights the prevalence and hence importance of forests to BC landscapes\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2018\/01\/siobhan_landcover-06-e1406136682970.png\" height=\"249\" width=\"400\"><\/a> Figure 8.2 Land cover types in BC as percentage of total land area. This graphic highlights the prevalence and hence importance of forests to BC landscapes[\/caption]\n<p>East of the Coast&nbsp;Mountains are the interior plateaus and lower mountains.&nbsp;As the Pacific air&nbsp;flows through the&nbsp;Interior it is&nbsp;influenced by continental air masses. This results in a more continental climate&nbsp;with greater extremes of temperature and precipitation. The region in BC's southern interior east of the Coast&nbsp;Mountains&nbsp;is the driest&nbsp;while&nbsp;the northeast of BC with its elevated rolling plains (a landscape feature unique in&nbsp;BC)&nbsp;has a cold northern continental climate.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_180\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"400\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/06\/britta_cloud_rain-01-e1406136750785.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-180\" alt=\"Figure 3. The Rain Shadow Effect on Vancouver. This graphic shows how the presence of Vancouver Island on the Western side and the Coast Mountains creates a rain shadow effect on the weather in the Greater Vancouver area.\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2018\/01\/britta_cloud_rain-01-e1406136750785.png\" height=\"113\" width=\"400\"><\/a> Figure 8.3 The rain shadow effect on Vancouver. This graphic shows how the presence of Vancouver Island on the Western side and the Coast Mountains creates a rain shadow effect on the weather in the Greater Vancouver area.[\/caption]\n<p>There are 47 official <a href=\"http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>ecoregions<\/strong> <\/a>in BC[footnote]See&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf<\/a>&nbsp; for a detailed map of the ecoprovinces, ecoregions&nbsp;and ecosections of BC.[\/footnote] as defined by the government of BC. An <strong>ecoregion<\/strong> is an area with major physiographic and minor macroclimatic or oceanographic variation.What distinguishes BC from other parts of Canada and North America is the presence of&nbsp;small-scale ecological relationships given its great ecological complexity (Meidinger&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Pojar,&nbsp;1991). In BC, marine and oceanic environments are part of the regional classification of the province given their important climatic influence. There is another level of ecological complexity that occurs within mountainous regions, that of topo-climatic zonation, given the elevation of the landscape which includes mountains and plains.<\/p>\n<h2>Attributions<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Figure 8.1<\/strong> Physiographic region of British Columbia by Hilda Anggraeni from Michael Church, June M. Ryder, 2010. Compendium of forest hydrology and geomorphology in British Columbia. Government of British Columbia. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.for.gov.bc.ca\/hfd\/pubs\/docs\/Lmh\/Lmh66\">http:\/\/www.for.gov.bc.ca\/hfd\/pubs\/docs\/Lmh\/Lmh66<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Figure 8.2<\/strong> Land cover types in BC as percentage of total land area by Hilda Anggraeni adapted&nbsp;from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversitybc.org\/EN\/main\/downloads\/tnp-2.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.biodiversitybc.org\/EN\/main\/downloads\/tnp-2.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Figure 8.3<\/strong> The rain shadow effect on Vancouver by Hilda Anggraeni.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","rendered":"<p>\u201cBeautiful British Columbia\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Best Place on Earth\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuper, Natural British Columbia\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These official slogans for British Columbia (BC) have all been inspired by the rugged physical geography that characterizes&nbsp;the province. Physical geography is the study of processes and patterns of the natural environment that creates these characteristic&nbsp;landscapes. Physical geography includes a diverse range of natural phenomena, studying, for example, the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and geosphere.&nbsp;In this chapter we will introduce several physical geography&nbsp;sub-disciplines as they relate to BC&#8217;s&nbsp;different regions.<\/p>\n<h2>Overview of Regions in British Columbia<\/h2>\n<p>BC has an array of physical characteristics that&nbsp;make up its&nbsp;unique and diverse landscape. Because of the variety of&nbsp;physical and cultural regions, the province is sometimes called &#8220;a region of regions&#8221; (McGillivray, 2005).&nbsp;British Columbia is customarily divided into three main regions, the&nbsp;Interior, the&nbsp;Coast&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Lower Mainland. These are broken up by a loose and often overlapping system of cultural-geographic regions, often based on river basins but sometimes spanning them. Examples of the former are&nbsp;the&nbsp;Kootenays, the&nbsp;Okanagan, and the&nbsp;Chilcotin; examples of&nbsp;latter are&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lillooet country&nbsp;and&nbsp;the Cariboo. Important subareas of these include the&nbsp;Fraser Valley, part of the Lower Mainland, the&nbsp;Fraser Canyon&nbsp;(which overlaps with various regions) and the&nbsp;Robson Valley, which is the uppermost basin of the Fraser River southeast of Prince George. Vancouver Island is considered&nbsp;its own region, as are Haida Gwaii&nbsp;(Queen Charlotte Islands) and the&nbsp;Gulf Islands.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_178\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-178\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/06\/Aviv_mountainRange-03-e1406135622694.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-178\" alt=\"Figure 1. Physiographic region of British Columbia\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2018\/01\/Aviv_mountainRange-03-e1406135622694.png\" height=\"397\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 8.1 Physiographic region of British Columbia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The spatial layout of major features of BC&#8217;s physical geography are illustrated in the map in Figure 8.1, which displays some of the major mountain ranges: the Coast Mountains, Columbia Mountains, and Rocky Mountains and plateaus such as the Thomson and Chilcotin Plateaus.<\/p>\n<p>BC&#8217;s&nbsp;complex landscape includes varied topography and&nbsp;physiography, many microclimates, and both&nbsp;terrestrial&nbsp;and&nbsp;marine&nbsp;ecosystems.&nbsp;Important characteristics of marine ecosystems include&nbsp;temperature, salinity, seabed configuration and water depth, whereas terrestrial ecosystems are heavily influenced by&nbsp;climatic zones that occur where specific soils, plant and animal communities, and aquatic systems interact with the geologic and geomorphic processes.&nbsp;Marine and terrestrial ecosystems interact to create a unique and vibrant coastal zone.<\/p>\n<p>There are several different <a href=\"http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>biogeoclimatic&nbsp;zones<\/strong><\/a><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"see\u00a0http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/ for more information on BC biogeoclimatic zones\" id=\"return-footnote-159-1\" href=\"#footnote-159-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a> that include diverse&nbsp;vegetation reflecting climatic and physiographic differences. These zones include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alpine tundra<\/li>\n<li>Spruce\u2014Willow\u2014Birch<\/li>\n<li>Boreal white and black spruce<\/li>\n<li>Sub-boreal pine\u2014spruce<\/li>\n<li>Sub-boreal spruce<\/li>\n<li>Mountain hemlock<\/li>\n<li>Engelmann spruce\u2014Subalpine fir<\/li>\n<li>Montane spruce<\/li>\n<li>Bunchgrass<\/li>\n<li>Ponderosa pine<\/li>\n<li>Interior Douglas-fir<\/li>\n<li>Coastal Douglas-fir<\/li>\n<li>Interior cedar\u2014hemlock<\/li>\n<li>Coastal western hemlock<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These biogeoclimatic zones are heavily influenced by the mountains landscape of BC, which has&nbsp;some of the highest mountains in North America. These ranges create orthographic effects, rain shadows and&nbsp; dramatic temperature changes over short horizontal differences.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table>\n<caption style=\"font-weight: bold\"><b>Table 8.1 British Columbia&#8217;s principal mountains (by range &amp; height)<br \/>\n<\/b><\/caption>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Mountain (Range)<\/th>\n<th>Height (m)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Saint Elias Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fairweather Mountain&nbsp;(highest point on Alaska\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>4,663<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Quincy Adams&nbsp;(on Alaska\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>4,133<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Root&nbsp;(on Alaska\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>3,901<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Coast Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Waddington<\/td>\n<td>4,016<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Tiedemann<\/td>\n<td>3,848<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Combatant Mountain<\/td>\n<td>3,756<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><a title=\"Asperity Mountain\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Asperity_Mountain\"><\/a><strong>Rocky Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Serra Peaks (page does not exist)\" class=\"new\" style=\"color: #a55858\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Serra_Peaks&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\"><\/a>Mount Robson<\/td>\n<td>3,954<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Monarch Mountain\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Monarch_Mountain\"><\/a>Mount Columbia&nbsp;(on Alberta\u2013BC boundary)<\/td>\n<td>3,747<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Clemenceau<\/td>\n<td>3,642<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Selkirk Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Mount Robson\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Robson\"><\/a>Mount Sir Sandford<\/td>\n<td>3,522<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><a title=\"Mount Columbia (Canada)\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Columbia_(Canada)\"><\/a><strong>Cariboo Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a title=\"Mount Clemenceau\" style=\"color: #0b0080\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mount_Clemenceau\"><\/a>Mount Sir Wilfrid Laurier<\/td>\n<td>3,520<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Purcell Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Farnham<\/td>\n<td>3,481<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Monashee Mountains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mount Monashee<\/td>\n<td>3,274<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>While the high mountains, especially the Rocky Mountains&nbsp;and Coast Mountains, are known for their cold temperatures, the coastal environment is warm and&nbsp;moist. This warmth and moisture is largely due to the North Pacific Current that runs west to east across the Pacific (stemming from the collision of the Oshiyo Current&nbsp;and Kuroshio Current). Warm ocean air drops most of its moisture as rain and snow as it rises over&nbsp;mountain ranges. This makes&nbsp;BC home to Canada&#8217;s wettest climates and hence its most productive forests. The richness of natural resources available in BC are a result of its complex environment and varied ecoregions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_179\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-179\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/06\/siobhan_landcover-06-e1406136682970.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-179\" alt=\"Figure 2. Land cover types in BC as percentage of total land area. This graphic highlights the prevalence and hence importance of forests to BC landscapes\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2018\/01\/siobhan_landcover-06-e1406136682970.png\" height=\"249\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-179\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 8.2 Land cover types in BC as percentage of total land area. This graphic highlights the prevalence and hence importance of forests to BC landscapes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>East of the Coast&nbsp;Mountains are the interior plateaus and lower mountains.&nbsp;As the Pacific air&nbsp;flows through the&nbsp;Interior it is&nbsp;influenced by continental air masses. This results in a more continental climate&nbsp;with greater extremes of temperature and precipitation. The region in BC&#8217;s southern interior east of the Coast&nbsp;Mountains&nbsp;is the driest&nbsp;while&nbsp;the northeast of BC with its elevated rolling plains (a landscape feature unique in&nbsp;BC)&nbsp;has a cold northern continental climate.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_180\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-180\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2014\/06\/britta_cloud_rain-01-e1406136750785.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-180\" alt=\"Figure 3. The Rain Shadow Effect on Vancouver. This graphic shows how the presence of Vancouver Island on the Western side and the Coast Mountains creates a rain shadow effect on the weather in the Greater Vancouver area.\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/312\/2018\/01\/britta_cloud_rain-01-e1406136750785.png\" height=\"113\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-180\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 8.3 The rain shadow effect on Vancouver. This graphic shows how the presence of Vancouver Island on the Western side and the Coast Mountains creates a rain shadow effect on the weather in the Greater Vancouver area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There are 47 official <a href=\"http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>ecoregions<\/strong> <\/a>in BC<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"See\u00a0http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf\u00a0 for a detailed map of the ecoprovinces, ecoregions\u00a0and ecosections of BC.\" id=\"return-footnote-159-2\" href=\"#footnote-159-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a> as defined by the government of BC. An <strong>ecoregion<\/strong> is an area with major physiographic and minor macroclimatic or oceanographic variation.What distinguishes BC from other parts of Canada and North America is the presence of&nbsp;small-scale ecological relationships given its great ecological complexity (Meidinger&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Pojar,&nbsp;1991). In BC, marine and oceanic environments are part of the regional classification of the province given their important climatic influence. There is another level of ecological complexity that occurs within mountainous regions, that of topo-climatic zonation, given the elevation of the landscape which includes mountains and plains.<\/p>\n<h2>Attributions<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Figure 8.1<\/strong> Physiographic region of British Columbia by Hilda Anggraeni from Michael Church, June M. Ryder, 2010. Compendium of forest hydrology and geomorphology in British Columbia. Government of British Columbia. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.for.gov.bc.ca\/hfd\/pubs\/docs\/Lmh\/Lmh66\">http:\/\/www.for.gov.bc.ca\/hfd\/pubs\/docs\/Lmh\/Lmh66<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Figure 8.2<\/strong> Land cover types in BC as percentage of total land area by Hilda Anggraeni adapted&nbsp;from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversitybc.org\/EN\/main\/downloads\/tnp-2.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.biodiversitybc.org\/EN\/main\/downloads\/tnp-2.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Figure 8.3<\/strong> The rain shadow effect on Vancouver by Hilda Anggraeni.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-159-1\">see&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/cfcg.forestry.ubc.ca\/resources\/cataloguing-in-situ-genetic-resources\/about-bec-and-bgc-units\/<\/a> for more information on BC biogeoclimatic zones <a href=\"#return-footnote-159-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-159-2\">See&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/a100.gov.bc.ca\/pub\/eswp\/res\/EcosectionMap.pdf<\/a>&nbsp; for a detailed map of the ecoprovinces, ecoregions&nbsp;and ecosections of BC. <a href=\"#return-footnote-159-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":265,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-159","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/159\/revisions\/198"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/159\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/geographyofbc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}