Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario has a very different climate from the rest of the country. It is the only area of Canada that has Carolinian forest. Many trees, plants, and wildlife in Southern Ontario are not found anywhere else in Canada. Some rare trees to Canada in this region include the tulip tree, pawpaw fruit tree and the cucumber tree. The Carolinian forests of Southern Ontario have in large part been destroyed by development sprawl. Very few original growth areas remain.
Geography of Ontario
Ontario, owing to its size, has diverse geology that varies in structure, age, and lithology. About 61% of the province is covered by the Canadian Shield, mostly with Precambrian rock. These rocks contain large mineral deposits that are vital to the economy of northern Ontario. The shield can further be divided into three sections. The northwestern parts of the Shield, located roughly north and west of Sudbury, are known as the Superior Province; this is the largest of the three sections, covering about 70% of the Shield portion in Ontario. This region is more than 2.5 billion years old and is composed of felsic intrusive rocks. In the northernmost parts of the Superior Province, the geology of the region is dominated by granite and gneiss rocks. The central region of the Shield, known as the Grenville Province and located south of Sudbury, is 1.0 to 1.6 billion years old and is dominated by sedimentary rocks showing evidence of being subjected to metamorphism. It makes up about 20% of the Canadian Shield in Ontario. These rocks were metamorphosed between 990 million years ago and 1.08 billion years ago. The third region, known as the Southern province which is a narrow region from Sault Ste. Marie to Kirkland Lake, is made of rocks dating 1.8 to 2.4 billion years ago. The Hudson Bay lowlands, located north of the Canadian Shield, are mainly made of sedimentary rocks from the Silurian Period, although some parts date from the Ordovician and Devonian periods. This area covers 25% of the province. Most of the bedrock in the Hudson Bay lowlands is composed of limestone and carbonate-dominated sedimentary rock.