Located in the Scandinavian Peninsula, Sweden is a mountainous country dominated by lakes and forests. Its habitats include mountain heath, montane forests, tundra, taiga, beech forests, rivers, lakes, bogs, brackish and marine coastal ecosystems, and cultivated land. The climate of Sweden is mild for a country at this latitude, largely owing to the significant maritime influence.
Geography Sweden is an elongated country east of Norway and west of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. It extends from a latitude of 55°N (similar to Newcastle or Moscow) to more than 70°N, which is north of the Arctic Circle. To the southwest lie the Skagerrak and the Kattegat seas. To the northeast is the land border with Finland, marked by the Torne River. The coastline along the Baltic Sea is indented with many small islands and two larger ones, Gotland and Öland. Lakes are numerous, ranging in size from small ponds to Vänern, the third largest lake in Europe. Most of northern and central Sweden, roughly north of the large river Dalälven, constitutes the Norrland terrain which consists of large, barren areas of hilly and mountainous land gradually rising from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Scandinavian Mountains (or Scandes) in the west. These mountains, which form the border with Norway in the north, are mostly around 1000 meters in height, but Kebnekaise reaches 2097 meters, making it the tallest mountain in Sweden and northern Scandinavia. The geology of the Scandes is quite diverse; often reflected in differences in the flora. South of Dalälven is a low-lying area surrounding the large lakes Mälaren and Hjälmaren. The soils in this area are clayey and fertile, having originated from marine deposits during the latest glaciation. Due to the rich soils, this area became one of the main agricultural regions in Sweden. To the south, there are some minor hilly and barren areas, such as Tiveden. East and west of Lake Vättern are intensively cultivated plains on sedimentary rock. To the south of this region, the land rises again to the South Swedish highlands, a terrain of mostly barren hills reaching 377 meters. The southernmost province of Scania differs from the rest of Sweden in consisting almost entirely of mostly flat, arable land, and also in its complex geology, which includes Mesozoic rocks and abrasion coasts. The rest of Sweden mostly consists of gneiss and granite, sometimes forming archipelagos (Swedish skärgård) of fairly small, bare, rounded rocks in the northern part of the west coast and around Stockholm. The Baltic islands Öland and Gotland consist almost entirely of Ordovician and Silurian limestone, respectively.
Climate
Despite its northerly latitude, most parts of Sweden have a temperate climate with few temperature extremes. Climatically, the country can be divided into three regions; the northernmost part has a subarctic climate, the central part a humid continental climate and the southernmost part an oceanic climate. The country is much warmer and drier than other places at a similar latitude, mainly because of the combination of the Gulf Stream and the general westerly direction of the wind. The northern half of the country gets less rainfall than Norway because of the rain shadow effect caused by the Scandinavian Mountains.
Biodiversity There are an estimated 55,000 species of animals and plants in terrestrial habitats in Sweden, this relatively low number is attributed to the cold climate; These include 73 species of mammal, about 240 breeding bird species (and another 60 or so non-breeding species which can be seen rarely or annually), 6 species of reptile, 12 species of amphibian, 56 species of freshwater fish, around 2000 species of vascular plants, close to 1000 species of bryophyte, and over 2000 lichens. Sweden had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.35/10, ranking it 103rd globally out of 172 countries.
Flora and vegetation
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