Temperate Rain Forest

Hiker in the Queets Rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, USA.

Temperate Rain Forest Definition:

For temperate rain forests of North America, Alaback's definition is widely recognized.

1. Annual precipitation over 1400 mm.

2. Mean annual temperature between 4 and 12 degrees Celsius. (39 and 54 degrees
Fahrenheit)

However, required annual precipitation depends on factors such as distribution of rainfall

over the year, temperatures over the year and fog presence, and definitions in another
country differ considerably. For example, Australian definitions are ecological-structural
rather than climatic:

1. Closed canopy of trees excludes at least 70% of the sky.

2. Forest is composed mainly of tree species, which do not require fire for
regeneration but their seedlings are able to regenerate under shade and in natural
openings.
Temperate Rain Forest Characteristics:

Temperate rain forests have following characteristics:

• Relative proximity to the ocean, usually coastal

mountains. Temperate rain forests depend on the
proximity to the ocean to moderate seasonal
variations in temperature, creating milder winters
and cooler summers than continental-climate
areas. Many temperate rain forests have summer
fogs that keep the forests cool and moist in the
hottest months. Coastal mountains increase
rainfall on the ocean-facing slopes.
• Wildfires are uncommon because of constant
high moisture content in forest.
• Epiphytes, including mosses, are abundant. They are dependent on rainfall and
high atmospheric moisture levels, as they have no access to soil water.

Temperate Rain Forest Global distribution

A map showing the areas of temperate rain forest

Temperate forests cover a large part of the globe, but temperate rain forests only occur in
few regions around the world. Most of these occur in Oceanic-Moist Climates: the Pacific
temperate rain forests in Western North America (Southeastern Alaska to Central
California), the Valdivian and Magellanic temperate rain forests of southwestern South
America (Southern Chile and adjacent Argentina), pockets of rain forest in northwest
Europe (southern Norway to northern Spain), temperate rain forests of southeastern
Australia (Tasmania and Victoria) and the New Zealand temperate rain forests (South
Island's west coast).
Others occur in Subtropical-Moist Climates: South Africa's Knysna-Amatole coastal
forests, the Colchian rain forests of the eastern Black Sea region (Turkey and Georgia),
the Caspian temperate rain forests of Iran (Jungles of Iran), the mountain temperate rain
forests along eastern Taiwan's Pacific Coast, southwest Japan's Taiheiyo forests,
Australia's coastal NSW and New Zealand's
North Island.

Some areas, however, such as the Rocky

Mountains of British Columbia, northern
Idaho and nortwestern Montana, Rocky
Mountain Trench of BC's and Montana's
interior and the Russian Far East (Ussuri,
Manchuria, Sakhalin) in Asia have more of
continental climate but get enough
precipitation in both rain and snow to harbor
significant pockets of temperate rain forest.

Scattered small pockets of temperate rain

forest also exist along the Appalachian
Mountains from northern Georgia to New England. The mountainous coniferous forests
of the Changbai Mountains bordering China and North Korea are a good example contain
some of the richest high-elevation coniferous evergreen forests in East Asia.