ecoregions in Poland

Poland is part of the Palearctic realm, one of the eight biogeographic realms that cover the Earth's land surface. Poland has a humid temperate climate, and falls within two terrestrial biomes, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate coniferous forests.

Most of Poland's natural vegetation is deciduous woodlands of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bYs8F0Mb9gC&dq=%22Generalized+vegetation+zones+of+the+world%22&pg=PR19 | title=Ecology: Vegetation zones | publisher=Columbia University Press | work=Plant Plant Taxonomy: The Systematic Evaluation of Comparative Data | year=2009 | accessdate=February 16, 2013 | author=Tod F. Stuessy | page=xix | format=Google books preview | isbn=978-0231147125 }} Poland has three temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions:

• The Central European mixed forests ecoregion covers the largest portion of Poland, spanning from Lithuania to Romania, and from Germany to western Russia.{{cite web | url=http://www.nativetreesociety.org/worldtrees/europe/links_european.htm | title=Central European mixed forests (PA0412) | publisher=The Native Tree Society (NTS), Florence, MA | work=European Trees And Forests | year=2011 | accessdate=February 16, 2013 | author=Will Blozan | author2=Robert Leverett}}{{WWF ecoregion|id=pa0412|name=Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOZ98M2p9JoC&dq=%22temperate+life+zone+of+central+Europe%22&pg=PA129 | title=Introduction to the Region | publisher=Island Press | work=Climate and Conservation: Landscape and Seascape Science, Planning, and Action | date=May 29, 2012 | accessdate=February 16, 2013 | author=Jodi A. Hilty | page=129 | format=Google books preview | isbn=978-1610912037}}
• Northwestern Poland is in the Baltic mixed forests ecoregion, which also includes the Baltic Sea coastal regions of northeastern Germany, eastern Denmark, and southern Sweden.{{WWF ecoregion|id=pa0405|name=Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests}}
• The Western European broadleaf forests ecoregion extends into southwestern Poland (PA0445), covering the Polish portion of the Sudetes mountains.{{WWF ecoregion|id=pa0445|name=Western European broadleaf forests}}

The southeastern portion of Poland, lying in the Carpathian Mountains, is within the Carpathian montane conifer forests ecoregion, part of the temperate coniferous forests biome.{{WWF ecoregion|id=pa0504|name=Carpathian montane conifer forests}}

Poland is part of the Central & Western Europe freshwater ecoregion. It encompasses the rivers and streams of western and central Europe between the North and Baltic seas to the north, and the Alps and Carpathian Mountains to the south."Central & Western Europe". Freshwater ecoregions of the World. Accessed 29 April 2020. [https://www.feow.org/ecoregions/details/404]

Poland's coastal waters are in the Baltic Sea marine ecoregion. It is part of the Temperate Northern Atlantic marine realm.Spalding, Mark D., Helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson et al. "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas". Bioscience Vol. 57 No. 7, July/August 2007, pp. 573–583.

The WWF is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working on issues regarding the conservation, research and protection of the environment.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=STAM4cTZ9JkC&dq=%22World+Wide+Fund+for+Nature+%28WWF%29%22&pg=PA118 | title=International Non-Governmental Organizations | publisher=Earthscan | work=World Directory of Environmental Organizations: A Handbook of National and International Organizations and Programs | year=1996 | accessdate=February 16, 2013 | author=Thaddeus C. Trzyna | page=118 | format=Google books preview | isbn=9781853833076}} A branch of the World Wide Fund has operated in Poland since the early 1990s.{{cite web | url=http://www.wwfpl.panda.org/o_nas/historia/ | title=Historia WWF | publisher=WWF Global | accessdate=January 20, 2013 | language=Polish}} In 1993, the WWF Polska succeeded in the creation of the Biebrza National Park followed in 1998 by the opening of its first permanent office in Białystok, which led to the creation of additional protected areas including Ujście Warty Landscape Park, Krzesin Landscape Park and the Muskau Park (Mużakowski Park Krajobrazowy, added to UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004). In 2000, the new permanent office in Warsaw became the headquarters of the foundation. An additional branch was set up in Wrocław which helped create the Ujście Warty National Park in 2001. The next year, WWF Poland petitioned the government into signing the Kyoto Protocol. In 2004 it organized a campaign against the illegal trade in endangered species resulting in new laws enacted by Polish Parliament, and in 2008 caused the cancellation of the Via Baltica expressway across the Rospuda valley. In recent years, WWF Polska volunteers removed the estimated 20 tons of abandoned nets from the Baltic sea, among numerous other projects.{{cite web | url=http://www.wwfpl.panda.org/o_nas/rezultaty_naszych_dzialan/ | title=Rezultaty naszych działań | publisher=WWF Global | work=WWF Polska | accessdate=January 20, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122030159/http://www.wwfpl.panda.org/o_nas/rezultaty_naszych_dzialan/ | archive-date=January 22, 2013 | url-status=dead}}

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Poland

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