1. Geography of Canada Physical Geography & Climate

2. Physical Geography 1.Climate 2.Landforms 3.Soil and Vegetation 4.Ecozones

3. Climate Vs. Weather  Weather is the day to day readings of temperature and precipitation (and wind speed, barometric pressure, and several other factors)  Climate is the long term patterns of Weather

4. What FACTOR influence Climate (LOWE)  Latitude Closer the location to the EQUATOR the warmer the CLIMATE  Ocean Currents – Ocean Currents bring warm or cool air to our regions  Wind Different air pressure can either warm or cool the region. Air mass can gather or release moisture. (i.e. Convectional Precipitation)  Elevation- Different elevation will directly affect climate. Height can prevent the flow of air masses

5. Climate  We can illustrate climate and compare climates from different locations easily using a climograph TORONT O JFMAMJJASONDAnn Temp ( o C) -5-404101619171492 Precip(m m) 565353565661765658565856

6. Climate – A Climograph of Toronto Months JFMAMJJASOND Temp. ( o C) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 Precip (mm) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140

8. Landforms – Appalachian Mountains

9. Landforms – Canadian Shield

10. Landforms – St Lawrence Lowlands

11. Landforms – Great Lakes Lowlands

12. Landforms – Arctic Lowlands

13. Landforms – Interior Plains

14. Landforms – Western Cordillera

15. Landforms – Innuitian Mountains

16. Landforms – Arctic Lowlands

17. Landforms

18. Soil and Vegetation  Soil is a naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose material on the surface of the earth, capable of supporting life  Soil is made up of four components (MOMA): –Minerals –Organic Material –Moisture –Air  More about qualities of soil (and their disappearance!) will be discussed in Unit 3

20. Soil and Vegetation  Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region (which very much depends on soil quality)  In Canada, we have everything from desert cactus to massive rainforest trees, and everything in between –Mosses –Plants –Shrubs –Coniferous trees –Deciduous trees

22. Ecozones  An ecozone is an area of the earth’s surface that has a unique combination of plants, wildlife, climate, landforms, and human activities.  If you were to overlay or combine the climate, landforms, soil (and vegetation) maps of Canada shown in this slideshow, you would see patterns emerge resulting in Canada’s 15 terrestrial (land) ecozones ++=