Ecosystem components

While all ecosystems are distinct in their particular combination of components, some ecosystem communities can be quite dramatically different from their surroundings. Examples include a wetland, an alpine meadow, or a unique forest community. A few ecosystem communities are presented here at a broad level --- the distribution of wetlands and forests. The land cover diversity shows a variety of major cover types and give an indication of the diversity of communities that may exist within a particular ecosystem.

Ecosystem components consist of plants, wildlife, climate, landforms and human activities. All components are important to the definition and function of an ecosystem. For now, however, the EcoMAP module is concentrating on species components for which data is currently available.

Land cover diversity

Forest diversity

Wetland diversity

Species diversity

Canada's ecosystems possess thousands of species of plants and animals, not to mention the enormous diversity of insects, microorganisms and other lifeforms. This richness is a result of the complex interaction of other ecosystem features such as landform, soils, and climate. One can get a general sense of the tolerance of a species group to climatic variables by looking at the change in species diversity from south to north.

Tree species diversity	Vertebrate species diversity module Vertebrate species Ecoregion-species table Species-ecoregion table
Endemic plant diversity	Rare plant diversity

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