Introduction: Why warm-temperate deciduous forests?

Abstract

Warm-temperate deciduous forests would seem to be an enigma. In the various global (and globally aware) bioclimatic zonation systems, warm-temperate climates are generally construed as humid temperate climates with warm summers, mild winters (no lasting snow cover), and evergreen broad-leaved forest as the zonal (i.e. climatic potential) vegetation type. This is the general conceptualization both in global treatments of vegetation and climate, as by Rübel (1930), Schmithüsen (1968), and Walter (1968, 1970, 1985); and in regional systems, such as by Kira and others for East Asia (cf Kira 1945, 1949, 1977, 1991; Suzuki 1953; Miyawaki 1967). Such zonal evergreen broad-leaved forests occur in East Asia (often called “laurel forests”) as well as in southern Brazil, northern New Zealand, parts of eastern Australia, in montane belts of tropical Asia (and even the Canary Islands), and, where topography permits, in small areas of the warm-temperate southeastern USA. Thermally, some mediterranean climates are also warm-temperate and may carry evergreen broad-leaved forests, albeit with sclerophyll rather than laurophyll foliage.