5.1: Natural Environments

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the climate types found in Europe.
2. Explain the maritime influence on the region's climate types.
3. Describe Europe's form main landforms.
4. Analyze the distribution of natural resources in Europe.

 

Defining the Region

Europe? Where’s that? It might seem like a relatively easy question to answer, but looking at the map, the boundaries of Europe are harder to define than it might seem. Traditionally, the continent of “Europe” referred to the western extremity of the landmass known as Eurasia (see Figure 5.1.1). Eurasia is a massive tectonic plate, so determining where exactly Europe ends and Asia begins is difficult. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean in the North, the Atlantic Ocean and its seas to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea to the south. Europe’s eastern boundary is typically given as the Ural Mountains, which run north to south from the Arctic Ocean down through Russia to Kazakhstan. The western portion of Russia, containing the cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow, is thus considered part of Europe while the eastern portion is considered part of Asia. Culturally and physiographically, Western Russia is strikingly similar to Eastern Europe. These two regions share a common history as well with Russian influence extending throughout this transition zone.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Europe map. (CC BY-NC-SA; Wallace via Flickr).

 

Europe's Climate

Most places in Europe are relatively short distances from the sea and this proximity to water affects Europe’s climate (see Figure 5.1.2). While you might imagine much of Europe to be quite cold given its high latitudinal position, the region is surprisingly temperate. The Gulf Stream brings warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean to Europe’s coastal region and warms the winds that blow across the continent. Amsterdam, for example, lies just above the 52°N line of latitude, around the same latitudinal position as Saskatoon, in Canada’s central Saskatchewan province. Yet Amsterdam’s average low in January, its coldest month, is around 0.8°C (33.4°F) while Saskatoon’s average low in January is -20.7°C (-5.3°F)!

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Climate map of Europe. (Re-use permitted; European Environmental Agency).

 

While geographers can discuss Europe’s absolute location and the specific features of its physical environment, we can also consider Europe’s relative location. That is, its location relative to other parts of the world. Europe lies at the heart of what’s known as the land hemisphere. If you tipped a globe on its side and split it so that half of the world had most of the land and half had most of the water, Europe would be at the center of this land hemisphere (see Figure 5.1.3). This, combined with the presence of numerous navigable waterways, allowed for maximum contact between Europe and the rest of the world. Furthermore, distances between countries in Europe are relatively small. Paris, France, for example, is just over a two-hour high speed rail trip from London, England.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Map of land and water hemispheres and Europe’s relative location. (Derivative work by Caitlin Finlayson from original by Citynoise, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

 

This relative location provided efficient travel times between Europe and the rest of the world, which contributed to Europe’s historical dominance. When we consider globalization, the scale of the world is shrinking as the world’s people are becoming more interconnected. For Europe, however, the region’s peoples have long been interconnected with overlapping histories, physical features, and resources.

 

Four Main European Landforms

Europe has four prominent landforms, many islands and peninsulas, and various climate types. The four prominent landforms include the Alpine region, Central Uplands, Northern Lowlands, and Western Highlands (see Figures 5.1.4 and 5.1.5). These diverse landforms provide Europe with an abundance of biodiversity. Biodiversity refers to the diversity of the number of species in an ecosystem and the number of members in each species. The physical environment also provides natural resources and raw materials for human activities. Europe’s moderate climates and favorable relative location are supported by its access to the many rivers and seas. These advantageous developmental factors supported the development of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, giving rise to highly technical and urban societies. Europe has emerged as one of the core economic centers of the global economy. With Europe’s urbanization, high human population densities have placed a strain on the natural environment. As a result, there has been significant deforestation and the loss of natural habitat, which has, in turn, has decreased the realm’s level of biodiversity.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Four Main Landforms of Europe: Western Highlands, Northern Lowlands, Central Uplands, and the Alpine Region. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; University of Minnesota).

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): [top left] Western Highlands in Scotland (CC BY 2.0; Mike McBey via Flickr). [top right] Northern Lowlands in the Vistula Valley, Poland (CC BY-SA 4.0; Jakub Halun via Wikimedia Commons). [middle panorama] Central Uplands in the Rhine Valley, Germany (CC BY 2.0; Steve Knight via Flickr). [bottom panorama] Alpine Region in the Rhone Valley, Switzerland (CC BY 2.0; Robert J. Heath via Flickr).

 

Rivers are abundant in Europe and have provided adequate transportation for travel and trade throughout its history. Most of Europe is accessible by water transport either via the many rivers or along the peninsulas and islands’ extensive coastlines. Two main rivers divide Europe: the Danube and the Rhine. Both have their origins in the region of southern Germany on or near the border with Switzerland. The Rhine River flows north and empties into the North Sea in Rotterdam, Holland, one of the world’s busiest ports. The Danube flows east through various major European cities, such as Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade, before emptying into the Black Sea.

 

Alpine Region

The High Alps, which range from eastern France to Slovenia, are central to the Alpine region. Included in the Alpine Range are the Pyrenees, located on the border between France and Spain; the Apennines, running Italy’s length; the Carpathians, looping around Romania from Slovakia; and finally, the shorter Dinaric Alps in former Yugoslavia. Mountains usually provide minerals and ores placed there when the earth’s internal processes created the mountains. Mountains also isolate people by acting as a dividing range that can separate people into cultural groups.

The Alpine region encircles the Mediterranean coastlines, which have more temperate type C climates that are unusually warm with hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. This climate type allows for the cultivation of food products such as olives, citrus fruit, figs, apricots, and grapes. Evergreen scrub oaks and other drought-resistant shrubs are common in the Mediterranean region.

 

The Central Uplands

The region bordering the Alps to the north, which includes a large portion of southern Germany extending eastward, is known as the Central Uplands. These foothills to the Alps are excellent sources of raw materials such as forest products and coal, which are valuable resources for industrial activities. The Central Uplands are also good locations for dairy farming and cattle raising. This middle portion of the continent has a mixed deciduous-coniferous forest, and the vegetation includes oak, elm, and maple trees intermingled with pine and fir trees. There are four distinct seasons in this region with moderate amounts of precipitation year-round.

 

Northern Lowlands

Similar to the breadbasket of the midwestern United States, Europe’s Northern Lowlands possess excellent farmland. Primary agricultural operations here provide for a large European population. The land is flat to rolling with relatively good soils. The Northern Lowlands is a vast plain that extends across northern Europe from southern France, north through Germany, and then to the Ural Mountains of Russia. This area is typified by prairies and areas of tall grasses and is mostly used as farmland. The lowlands area also contains bogs, heaths, and lakes. A steppe biome characterizes the eastern part of this vast plain around Ukraine. It is a flat and relatively dry region with short grasses and is generally an agricultural region. This eastern area has large swings in temperature, both from day to night and from summer to winter. Winter temperatures in the eastern steppe can drop to below −40 °F, with summer temperatures reaching as high as 105 °F. This is similar to the steppes of eastern Montana or western North Dakota in the United States.

 

Western Highlands

On the western edges of the European continent arise small, rugged mountains called highlands that extend throughout Norway, parts of Britain, and portions of the Iberian Peninsula of Portugal and Spain. These Western Highlands hold sparser populations and are less attractive to large farming operations. Agriculture is usually limited to grazing livestock or farming in the valleys and meadows. The Scottish Highlands are noted for their wool products and Highland cattle. In England, the central chain of highlands called the Pennines proved valuable during the Industrial Revolution because they enabled hydropower and coal mining. Coal mining was prominent in the highland regions of Wales. In the far northern regions of Scandinavia, tundra environments prevail. In this coldest and driest biome, permafrost dominates the landscape, and the land becomes soggy for brief periods during the few weeks of summer. The flora consists primarily of lichens, mosses, low shrubs, and wildflowers.

 

Natural Resources in Europe

Europe’s physical landforms provide a diversity of geographic opportunities that have catapulted Europe through the Industrial Revolution and into the information age. With an abundance of natural resources, European countries have gained wealth from the land and leveraged their geographic location to develop a powerhouse of economic activity for the global marketplace. Europe has placed a strong focus on manufacturing activity to take advantage of its natural resources. The highly urbanized society has struggled to find a balance between modernization and environmental concerns. Industrial activities have contributed to the degradation of the environment and the demise of many species.

Different regions of Europe have freshwater supplies, good soils, and various minerals. Chief among the mineral deposits in Europe is iron ore, which can be found in Sweden, France, and Ukraine. Other minerals exist in smaller quantities, including copper, lead, bauxite, manganese, nickel, gold, silver, potash, clay, gypsum, dolomite, and salt. Extraction activities have supported the continent’s industrialization.

The ready access to vast areas of the Atlantic Ocean and several major seas, lakes, and rivers has elevated fish to an essential natural resource in Europe. The seas around Europe provide about 10 percent of the world’s fish catches. Mirroring the situation around the world, European fishing activity increased as the population increased. Europeans are becoming increasingly aware of the effects of overfishing. Stocks of Atlantic cod and Atlantic mackerel are considered to be at risk because of the twin threats of overfishing and changes in the environment that affect natural mortality and slowing spawning. Stocks of eastern North Atlantic bluefin tuna are also attracting attention for the same reason. Other species of fish in the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea are considered overexploited. Changes to the fishery are a significant concern for strictly environmental and ecological reasons and because fish comprise such a substantial portion of the European economy.

With the EU’s formation, Europe’s countries began to work toward shared research and policies concerning the fishery. The Common Fisheries Policy was drafted and included strict and extensive rules and guidelines for fishing, particularly of cod. The rules are so strict and thus so controversial that Norway and Iceland decided to opt-out of the EU rather than agree to abide by these rules. The effect of these rules is incompletely known, but the cod stocks in the North Sea do not seem to be rebounding as quickly or substantially as expected.

Forest covers more than 40 percent of the continent’s land area, with the majority on the Russian side. Forests exist primarily in the less populated Nordic and Baltic countries and Central Europe. About half the forest land in Europe is privately owned. Interestingly, there are several different forms of private ownership, including extensive family holdings, holdings by forest industries, and small to minimal holdings by thousands of individuals. Most of the forested land is managed, and about 85 percent of the forests produce exploitable resources. The percentage of forested land in Europe is rebounding because of an extensive tree-planting initiative since 2000. Pollution has caused great harm to the forests of Poland, the Czech Republic, and eastern Germany, and acid rain and air pollution have seriously harmed forests such as the Black Forest of southern Germany, which has also experienced substantial logging activity.

Soil resources are of critical importance. Soil is necessary for growing food, supporting livestock, supporting other natural resources such as the forests, and supplying groundwater. Soil resources are only just beginning to receive attention in Europe. Problems to be addressed include loss of topsoil from development and building activities, older-style agricultural practices, mining, contamination from industries and other sources, and acidification due to acid rain.

Coal, now substantially depleted, is abundant in Great Britain, including some offshore areas and Germany and Ukraine’s industrial centers (Figure 5.1.6). Other coals deposits are found in Belgium, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Russia. The burning of coal has produced high levels of air pollution. Acid rain has been a significant concern in the northern countries, where wind currents carry pollutants north into Scandinavia from Central Europe’s industrial regions. In Scandinavia, acid rain has diminished fish populations in many of the lakes. Forest health is also being challenged, diminishing regions’ economic conditions that depend on forests for their economic survival.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Locations of major deposits of uranium, gas, oil, coal/oil shales in Europe. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; UNEP/GRID-Arendal via European Environment Agency).

 

Petroleum and natural gas deposits exist underneath the North Sea and were first tapped in the 1970s. Five European countries have rights to these resources, including Norway, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, with Norway holding the bulk of the rights. The governments of these five nations agree that half the North Sea oil reserves have been consumed although tapped only decades ago.

Before the extraction of petroleum products from the North Sea, Russia and the former Soviet Union’s other republics supplied petroleum to Europe. These areas still have several active extraction operations. Hydroelectric power has been essential in Europe. With both coal and oil resources largely depleted and the desire to avoid the environmental damage caused by dams, the European Energy Commission is devoting substantial energy and resources to encouraging the use of renewable resources such as wind and solar energy. In March 2007, European leaders agreed that a binding target of 20 percent of all energy must be from alternative sources by 2020. Also, 10 percent of the transportation fuels used by EU members must be sustainable biofuels.

 

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Attributions:

"Defining the Region" and "Europe's Climate" is adapted from World Regional Geography by Caitlin Finlayson (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

"Four Main European Landforms" and "Natural Resources in Europe" is adapted from Introduction to World Regional Geography by R. Adam Dastrup (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).