The list of ecoregions in Illinois are lists of

terrestrial ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

s (see also,

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

) of the United States' State of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, as defined separately by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(USEPA), and by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

. Illinois' ecology is in a land area of ; the state is long and wide and is located between latitude: 36.9540° to 42.4951° N, and longitude: 87.3840° to 91.4244° W, with primarily a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

USEPA

The EPA ecoregion classification system has four levels, but only Levels I, III, and IV are shown on this list. Level I divides North America into 15 broad ecoregions (or biomes). Illinois is almost entirely within the Eastern Temperate Forest environment Level I region, although very small sections in its extreme west are in the Great Plains, Level I region. Level IV ecoregions (denoted by numbers and letters) are a further subdivision of Level III ecoregions (denoted by numbers alone). In general, Illinois transitions from the forests, to

savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

, to

tall grass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroac ...

, and is now largely used for agriculture or urbanized, although in its far south are the forested highlands of the

Shawnee Hills The Shawnee Hills is a region of southern Illinois that rests mainly in an east-west arc roughly following the outline of the southern end of the Illinois Basin. Whereas Mississippian and Pennsylvania Age rock layers are deep beneath the soil su ...

and along its major rivers varying topography and biome occurs. Its larger ecoregion areas are 'corn belt'

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

s, known for rich, thick

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...

(in its north, center and east, particularly 54a) and the 'rivers and hills' region, which also has large

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

plains in Illinois' south (72j) and west (72i).

Great Plains

*40 Central Irregular Plains (small section in the west) **40a - Loess Flats and Till Plains *47 Western Corn Belt Plains (small section in the west) **47f - Rolling Loess Prairies

Eastern Temperate Forest

These forests stretch from eastern Texas and northern Florida to the Adirondacks and Wisconsin. For a general description of these forests, refer to

Temperate Deciduous Forest Temperate deciduous or temperate broad-leaf forests are a variety of temperate forest 'dominated' by trees that lose their leaves each year. They are found in areas with warm moist summers and cool winters. The six major areas of this forest type ...

. The standard reference is ''The Deciduous Forest of Eastern North America''.Braun, E. L. 1950. The Deciduous Forest of Eastern North America. New York: Hafner. * 52 Driftless Area (far northwestern Illinois) **52a - Savanna Section **52b - Paleozoic Plateau/Coulee Section * 53 Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains (northern Illinois) **53a - Rock River

Drift Drift or Drifts may refer to: Geography * Drift or ford (crossing) of a river * Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States * In Cornwall, England: ** Drift, Cornwall, village ** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village ...

Plain **53b - Kettle

Moraines A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...

* 54 Central Corn Belt Plains (northern and central Illinois) **54a - Illinois/Indiana Prairies **54b - Chicago Lake Plain **54c - Kankakee Marsh **54d - Sand Area **54e - Chiwaukee Prairie Region **54f - Valparaiso-Wheaton Morainal Complex **54g - Rock River Hills * 71 Interior Plateau (far southern Illinois) **71a - Crawford-

Mammoth Cave Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under F ...

Uplands **71m - Northern

**71n - Southern

* 72 Interior River Valleys and Hills (along the State boundary rivers and into the interior along the Illinois River, also the broad somewhat hillier southern and western till plains) **72a - Wabash-Ohio Bottomlands **72b - Glaciated Wabash Lowlands **72d -

Upper Mississippi The Upper Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River upstream of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, at the confluence of its main tributary, the Missouri River. History In terms of geologic and hydrographic history, the Upper ...

Alluvial Plain **72e - Middle Mississippi Alluvial Plain **72f - River Hills **72g - Southern

Ozark The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant porti ...

ian River Bluffs **72i - Western Dissected Illinoian Till Plain **72j - Southern Illinoian Till Plain **72k -

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

Hills **72l -

Karstic Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

Northern

ian River Bluffs **72m -

Wabash River The Wabash River (French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows from ...

Bluffs and Low Hills * 73 Mississippi Alluvial Plain (extreme southern Illinois) **73a - Northern

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

Meander Belts **73c - St. Francis Lowlands

World Wildlife Fund

References

External links

* tp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/il/il_report.pdf Illinois Ecoregions Reportfrom the EPA {{DEFAULTSORT:Ecoregions In Illinois, List Of

Environment of Illinois Illinois geography-related lists

United States science-related lists