The Mixedwood Plains ecozone of southern Ontario and Quebec is a landscape of forest and grasslands in which about half of Canada's 33 million inhabitants resides, with 85 percent in urban areas. Until the end of the Pleistocene glaciation 11,000 years ago, the Mixedwood Plains were under a sheet of ice one mile thick. For another thousand years, the area was covered with a sea of glacial meltwater. The landscape is now flat plains that gently roll over glacial moraines in some locations.
Champlain Sea
During glaciation, the weight of the ice sheet depressed the elevation of the continent. When the glaciers retreated, the Champlain Sea formed from ocean water and glacial meltwater. The sea persisted 1000 years, until isostatic rebound (continental rebound) raised the area above sea level. The region's average elevation is 174 feet, with a high point around 650 feet. The region's rich agricultural soils and the waterways that bring ocean traffic far into the continent from the Atlantic both originated with glaciation. Together they form the basis of the the region's economy. Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River form the southern boundary of the Mixedwood Plain between Windsor, Canada and Quebec city, with the Boreal ecozone to the north.
Flora
When the sea retreated, it left behind clay ground fine by glacial action, a basis for fertile soils. The woodlands that entered the area were a mix of pine and deciduous broad leaf trees. The dominant trees today are white spruce and aspen, but the area has a wealth of poplar, birch, fir, spruce, jackpine and tamarack. In sandy, drier soils jackpine and white spruce dominate. On deep and warmer soils, aspen is dominant, in association with spruce, poplar and birch. Blue spruce and tamarack tolerate the moisture and acidic organic soils associated with sphagnum bogs.
Fauna
About half of Canada's endangerd species are indigenous to the urbanized corridor between Windsor and Quebec. The pre-Columbian Mixedwood Forest included many large mammals, such as moose and deer, that are no longer found in abundance. Other indigenous mammals include deer, cottontail rabbits, black bear and squirrels in the forests, with a reduced population of foxes and wolves. Beaver, raccoon and muskrat are found along streams. The Long Point Biosphere reserve has tracked about 280 bird species in the area, the most populous being blue jay, red-headed woodpecker and Baltimore oriole.
First Nations
Before European settlement, the First Nations groups in the area were the Mohawk, Algonquian, Iroquoia and Cree. These sedentary hunting and farming groups resided in villages fortified with perimeter palisades, surrounded by farmland for corn, beans and squash. There are still First Nations groups on reserve land in the Mixedwood Plain ecozone, and because the boundaries of the reserves are fixed by treaty, the traditional cultures are endangered by global warming. The reserves will not change latitude as the ecozone shifts with the climate.
European Settlement
The French government established the Canada and Arcadia Company in 1603, granting it land as far south as Philadelphia. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain sailed from France to Tadousac, a trading post on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River. He realized that he could not monopolize the fur trade unless he established his business further upsteam. He continued to explore several tributaries before selecting a location for his settlement at the site of present-day Quebec. French settlers later established Montreal. During the next century, British settlers founded Niagara, Hamilton and Toronto.
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