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I agree with most everyone here. Overall, it would be the coastal northwest from Washington to Northern California. Extremely lush and green with ferns, evergreens, etc. and the lushness is year round. Same goes for most of Florida, which is also green year round. But that little strip of the northwest takes up about 5% of the total western land area.
The answer is obviously the east. Doesn't mean one is better than the other.
You can make a safe case for Washington state, but I have never seen a brown tree in the Deep South and the southeast (specifically Georgia). Absolutely gorgeous.
You can make a safe case for Washington state, but I have never seen a brown tree in the Deep South and the southeast (specifically Georgia). Absolutely gorgeous.
Color isn't what I was talking about. More like bare trees, which I guess would exclude the coastal portions along the gulf.
Which trees lose their leaves in Orlando and Tampa and why the hell do they do that?
Deciduous trees in the Coastal South are merely a relic from when North America had a colder climate during the Ice Age; their presence in region today represents the fact that during Ice Age, the coastal South was a safe haven with a climate warm enough for their growth, as the more northerly parts of the continent would have been too cold to support them (due to the glacial extent).
But with the climate at this time being warm enough, deciduous trees in the Coastal South will slowly, but surely, get replaced by broad-leaf evergreens, such as live oaks, bay trees, and magnolias, along with other subtropical/tropical plants, such as Sabal palms, and evergreen shrubs/lianas. Upland areas are already dominated by the many southern pine species, such as the Loblolly Pine, which have tropical origins. Tropical plants from South/Central America, and the Caribbean, can also make their way into the Southeast, through South Florida and South Texas. In due time, the Coastal South will be entirely devoid of deciduous trees; many inland areas will be as well.
The same also applies for many animal species; animals like the nutria, the fire ant, and the armadillo, which have tropical American origins, have been able to spread into the Southeast, as the climate is warm enough to support them.
Its just a simple matter of logic and deductive reasoning; if tropical rainforests are able to be the impressively bio-diverse ecosystems they are, due to warmth and wetness, then the same should apply for the Southeastern US forests compared to other forests in the CONUS, as it has the best combination of warmth and wetness.
Except the Southeast is A LOT colder and not nearly as warm and wet as tropical rainforests. If what you say is true then the Southeast would easily be the most biodiverse region in the US overall but it's not and you haven't provided any evidence that it is. End of story.
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Biodiversity ∝ warmth and wetness, end of story.
And the Southeastern US isn't warm year round or anything close to a tropical rainforest. End of story.
Except the Southeast is A LOT colder and not nearly as warm and wet as tropical rainforests. If what you say is true then the Southeast would easily be the most biodiverse region in the US overall but it's not and you haven't provided any evidence that it is. End of story.
Yes, but compared to the rest of the CONUS, the Southeast is most like a tropical rainforest, and thus would be the region that most approximates it's features, biodiversity included. I am compiling the studies, but you must know that the South, as a region, isn't very well studied, in terms of the natural wilderness of the region, as many wilderness areas are privately owned/ not at pristine state. Meanwhile, the West, with its huge amount of public wilderness, presented easier opportunity for naturalists to observe all the animals/plants in their regions; thus, the Western environments and biodiversity is more published than the South's.
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Originally Posted by sav858
And the Southeastern US isn't warm year round or anything close to a tropical rainforest. End of story.
Biodiversity ∝ warmth and wetness, and in that regard, Southeast > everywhere else in the CONUS. Familiarize yourself with this relationship quickly.
It's not as deep into the Gulf as the other states' coastlines are, so I would imagine it has the most picturesque fall.
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