 What are HRMs theme regions?
In
order to understand how a landscape develops or why plants and animals
live where they do, we divide the land and sea into manageable pieces.
The Natural History of Nova Scotia divides the province into natural or
Theme Regions. A Theme Region is a distinct area of land or sea that
shows common patterns of physical and biological features.
HRM
is made up of four Theme Regions: the Atlantic Interior; the
Carboniferous Lowlands, the Atlantic Coast; and the Offshore. Theme
Regions are further broken down into districts or units that share
characteristic patterns. For example, the Atlantic Interior has two
types of bedrock - the homogeneous granite and the folded slate and
quartzite. The distinction creates two different natural districts. An
even more detailed analysis reveals that drumlins cover some, but not
all, of the slate and quartzite. These drumlin areas are defined as a
unit. Road cuts are good clues to the mystery because they show the
underlying bedrock that is not always visible.
Each
region is developed as a result of a combination of natural processes
such as bedrock formation, glaciation, sea level rise, tides, plant
succession, wind, to name but a few. Each has a distinct geology or
climate regime. For instance, the bedrock of the Atlantic Interior and
the Atlantic Coast is the same. The climate, however, is very different
and so are the plants and animals
Natural history differs
in each Theme Region because each supports distinct features and
species. This is evident as you travel from one landscape to another.
As you learn to read the sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle
differences, you get a sense of which Theme Region you are in. If you
see a skunk, for example, you can bet you are probably in the northern
carboniferous region.
We are one of the forces that
shapes the land and seascapes. Our interactions depend on what nature
offers; that is, what resources are available and how hard or easy a
place is to settle. In turn, we shape the environment around us. As we
become more sophisticated in our activities our legacy is more obvious.
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