Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
circumboreal

circumboreal

9.9
Found across the far northern parts of Eurasia and North America, especially in plants and animals
  • adjective
  • /ˌsɜrkəmˈbɔriəl/
  • Specialized
: circumboreal
  • The circumboreal region is home to a variety of unique plants and animals that thrive in the cold climate.

Examples

  • Ecologists study circumboreal forests to understand how climate change affects biodiversity in the far north.

  • Many circumboreal species are adapted to survive in harsh Arctic conditions.

  • Also investigating the role of temperature in plant growth, the International Tundra Experiment, or ITEX (Arft et al. 1999), a circumboreal EDEN, tested the consequences of higher temperatures in the Arctic with field warming experiments.

    Academic text (2007)

Synonyms

boreal
vscircumboreal
  • Specialized
3 8.2

From the north or northern areas, often about cold forests

refers to species or areas present across all far northern regions worldwide

How Widespread

circumboreal
  • Specialized
9.9
boreal
  • Specialized
3 8.2
northern
724 1.0

Surface Forms

circumboreal positive

Morphology

circumboreal = boreal (semi-transparent) = circum + boreal

The meaning 'around the northern regions' is directly built from 'circum-' + 'boreal', but both elements are relatively specialized scientific forms and may be unfamiliar to general learners.

Etymology

Circumboreal comes from the Latin parts circum- meaning 'around' and boreal meaning 'north', like in 'Aurora Borealis'. So circumboreal describes plants or animals that live all around the northern parts of the world.