- North German plain
The North German Plain is one of the major
landscape s inGermany . The region is delimited by the coasts of theNorth Sea andBaltic Sea on the north and the central German uplands to the south.According to the German Federal Nature Conservation Agency, The North German lowlands consist of the following sections:: * D01 Coastal region of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern : * D02 North-eastern Mecklenburg plain withSzczecin Lagoon area: * D03 Backcounty of theMecklenburg Lake District : * D04Mecklenburg Lake District : * D05 Mecklenburg-Brandenburg flat land and hill country: * D06 EastBrandenburg plain: * D07Oder valley: * D08Lusatia nsedimentary basin andSpreewald : * D09Elbe valley: * D10 Elbe-Mulde lowland: * D11Fläming : * D12Brandenburg heath and lakes area : * D13Upper Lusatian Heath : * D14Upper Lusatia : * D21Schleswig-Holstein marshes : * D22Schleswig-Holstein geests : * D23Schleswig-Holstein hill country : * D24Lower Elbe depression (Elbmarsch) : * D25Ems and Weser marshes : * D26East Frisian geest : * D27Stade geest : * D28Lüneburg Heath : * D29Wendland andAltmark : * D30Dümmer geest depression and Ems-Hunte geest : * D31Weser -Aller -plain: * D34Münsterland (Westphalian) lowland bay : * D35 lowlands from theLower Rhine andCologne bay In the west the Lower Saxonian mountainous range,
Teutoburg Forest ,Wiehengebirge ,Wesergebirge and the Börde-areas of Lower Saxony limit the North German plain to the south and partly cutting off the Westphalian lowland bay. FurthermoreRhenish Schiefergebirge with its subrangesEifel ,Bergisches Land andSauerland act as a southern boundary. In the east the lowlands stretch eastward of theHarz andKyffhäuser further south up to the Saxon hill country andOre Mountains .Landscape, soils and their formation
The North German plain was formed during the
pleistocene era in different glaciation periods fromSkandinavian ice sheets as well as byperiglacial geomorphologic processes. [cite web
url=http://www.v-g-t.de/english/brd/module/m1/u2.htm
title=Unit 2: The natural landscape of Germany
publisher=Virtual Geographic Texts
date=
author=
language=English
accessdate=2008-06-26] Depending on whether the area was still reached from the ice of the last ice age,Vistula ice age one speaks from Young- or from Altmoränen country. Surface relief is level to wavy. The deepest points lie in low moors and old marshy land on the edge from geest back in the west of Schleswig - Holstein (Wilstermarsch: 3.5 meters under the sea level) or in the northwest of Lower Saxony (with Freepsum; to 2.3 meters under the sea level). As the highest points the "summits" are to be called by Vistula-glacial and hall-glacial terminal moraines – among the rest, in the Fläming with 200 ms NN and in the Helpter mountains with 179 ms NN. Formerly vast ombrogene high-level moors originated in western and northern Lower Saxony postglazial in warm times rich in precipitation (compares: Atlantikum).The areas close to coasts exist of holozänen lake marshes and river marshes or Boddenlandschaft which joins pleistozäne Alt-sowie Jungmoränenlandschaft in different stamping and decomposition stages. After or with retreat of the glaciers the wind-borne sand dunes which were fixed later by the vegetation often formed. Human interventions let emerge open heath areas like in the
Lüneburg Heath and by measures like deforestation and so-called "Plaggenhieb" (removal of the upper soil level) caused a wide impoverishment of the soil (Podsol ) . The most fertile grounds are the young marshes (Auen-Vegen) and the Börde areas (Hildesheim Börde, Magdeburg Börde, with their loessic and fertile soils). The poorest grounds show the high-level moor-peat, for instance in theDevil's Moor . The lowest areas of the lowland belong to the oldest settlement locations of Germany (Linear Pottery culture ).The region is drained by rivers that flow northward into the North Sea or the Baltic Sea. The Rhine, Ems, the Weser, the Elbe and Havel are the most important rivers which drain the North German lowlands in the North Sea and provided in her depressions for the origin of meadow and break woods as examples to the Spree wood. [cite web
url=http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112187/germany_geography.htm
title=Germany's Geography
publisher=Thinkquest.org
date=
author=
language=English
accessdate=2008-06-27] Only a small surface interest belongs to the catchment area from Or and Neiße and drains into the Baltic Sea.Climate and Vegetation
The coastal areas of the and the East and
North Frisian Islands [are characterised by euoceanicclimate . South of the coast, a broad area of oceanic and suboceanionic climate ranges from the east coast ofSchleswig-Holstein to the western edges of the central German highlands. To the southeast and east, the climate becomes increasingly subcontinental; among others, the temperature differences between summer and winter are increasing successively. Locally, dryercontinental climate can be found in therain shadow of theHarz and some smaller uplands like the Drawehn and theFläming . Specialmicroclimate s occur inbog s and heathlands and, for example, in theAltes Land nearHamburg , which is characterised by relatively mild temperatures year round due to the vicinity of the North Sea and lower Elbe river, providing excellent conditions for fruit production.Azonal vegetation complexes of moors, riparian forests, fens and water bodies originally stretched along the rivers
Ems ,Weser ,Elbe ,Havel andSpree . Distinctivesalt meadow s,tideflat s and tidalreed bed s in the estuaries existed permanently in the tidal zone of the North Sea coast. Thezonal vegetation of the North German lowlands would be after the ruling doctrine to a great extent formed by the climax vegetation of theEuropean Beech forest (Fagetalia).Military Importance
The North German plain, due to its strategic geography suitable for armored and mechanized maneuver, was logically assumed by
NATO planners to be one of the two major invasion routes intoWestern Europe thatWarsaw Pact forces, led by the dread Soviet Third Shock Army, would use if theCold War ever got "hot". (The other route was through theFulda Gap .)ee also
*
Northern European Plain Notes
References
* Ellenberg, Heinz. "Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen in ökologischer, dynamischer und historischer Sicht: 170 Tabellen". Stuttgart: Ulmer, 1996. ISBN 3825281043.
External links
* [http://www.germany.co.za/germany_lowlands.html The North German Lowland]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-419243/North-German-Plain "North German Plain"] , Britannica Online Encyclopedia
* [http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/EN/Content/Statistics/Geography/Aktuell,templateId=renderPrint.psml Federal (German) Statistical Office - Geography and climate]
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112187/germany_geography.htm Germany's Geography]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.