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Canada’s landscape is very diversified and comprises several distinctive areas, called physiographic regions, each of which has its own topography and geology. The physical geography of Canada comprises two great parts: the Shield and the Borderlands. The Shield consists of a core of old, massive, Precambrian crystalline rocks. The Borderlands areas are formed by younger rocks and surround the Shield like two rings.

This map shows the location of the Interior Plains physiographic region. The Interior Plains occupy the region between the Shield on the east and the mountains of the Cordilleran Region on the west. They join with the St. Lawrence Lowlands of eastern Canada through the United States and are separated from the Arctic Lowlands by the Amundsen Gulf.

Contained within the 4th Edition (1974) of the Atlas of Canada is a map that shows physiographic regions across Canada. These regions are split into the Borderlands and the Shield.

A geological province is an extensive region characterized by rocks and structures of varying types and ages. Canada has seventeen geological provinces consisting of a shield, platforms, orogens and continental shelves. Nunavut includes four of the geological provinces: Innuitian Orogen, Arctic Platform, Hudson Bay Lowlands, and Bear Province.

This map shows the location of the Arctic physiographic regions which include the Innuitian Region, the Arctic Lowlands and the Arctic Coastal Plains.

Canada is a vast country comprised of a multitude of very different landscapes: Atlantic provinces, the Appalachians, St. Lawrence and Great Lakes lowlands, Canadian Shield, The Prairies, mountain ranges and high plateaus of the Canadian Cordillera, and northern Canada.

Canada is a vast country comprised of a multitude of very different landscapes: Atlantic provinces, the Appalachians, St. Lawrence and Great Lakes lowlands, Canadian Shield, The Prairies, mountain ranges and high plateaus of the Canadian Cordillera, and northern Canada.

Ecozones are one of several levels of ecological regions that cover all of Canada. An ecozone is a discrete system, which has resulted from the mesh and interplay of geology, landform, soil, vegetation, climate, wildlife, water and human factors. Four of the fifteen terrestrial ecozones of Canada are found in Nunavut: Northern Arctic, Arctic Cordillera, Southern Arctic, and Taiga Shield.

Saskatchewan’s boreal woodland caribou range is divided into two woodland caribou conservation units, based on the boundaries of the boreal ecozones. The Boreal Shield (SK1) Woodland Caribou Conservation Unit (hereafter called Boreal Shield or SK1) encompasses the rocky shield, sandy plains and many lakes of northern Saskatchewan. The Boreal Plain (SK2) Woodland Caribou Conservation Unit (hereafter called Boreal Plain or SK2) encompasses the more productive mixed-wood forests and lakes of central Saskatchewan, including large areas of low-lying peatlands. While these two units represent important differences in ecological conditions (e.g., habitat types, fire regimes, landforms, etc.)

In Canada, there are 20 ecozones, consisting of 15 terrestrial and 5 marine units. The vegetation varies from one ecozone to another. Forests cover totally or partially nine ecozones: Pacific Maritime, Montane Cordillera, Boreal Cordillera, Taiga Plains, Boreal Plains, Prairie, Boreal Shield, Mixedwood Plains, and Atlantic Maritime.