Pacific Maritime Ecozone (CEC)

Pacific Maritime Ecozone (CEC)

The Pacific Maritime Ecozone is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone, spanning a strip approximately 200 kilometres wide along the British Columbian coast, then narrowing along the border with Alaska. It also includes all marine islands of British Columbia, and a small portion of the southwestern corner of the Yukon. Fourteen ecoregions comprise the Ecozone, ranging from the Mount Logan Ecoregion in the north to the Cascade Ecoregion and Lower Mainland Ecoregion in the south.

The name of the comparable ecozones in the United States, where Level II ecoregions correspond to the international term "ecozone", are the Marine West Coast Forest and the Northwestern Forested Mountains. ecoregions. In the floristic province system, the region is described as part of the Rocky Mountain Floristic Region.

Also in use is a system of biogeoclimatic zones defined and used by the British Columbia government, which defines the same area as the Coastal Western Hemlock zone, though a small portion flanking the Strait of Georgia comprises the Coastal Douglas-fir zone. In the different ecoregion system established by the World Wildlife Fund, the region corresponds to the Pacific Temperate Rain Forests Ecoregion, sub-ecoregions of which are the Queen Charlotte Islands ecoregion, Vancouver Island ecoregion, British Columbia mainland coastal forests ecoregions