treeline

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,594 of 15,258leans written

The treeline is the height above which trees will not grow. Above the treeline, the treeline is falling, below the treeline.

It is set by summer temperature rather than by cold in winter, since a tree needs a long enough warm season to make new wood. There is a northern treeline too, running across Canada and Siberia.

Definitions of treeline

1nountreelineThe height above which trees will not grow.B2+
“Above the treeline, there was nothing but grass, rocks and snow.”

treeline is a limit.

Practised in Nature & Weather

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treeline in the wild

The term montane in the name of the biome refers to high elevation, rather than the ecological term that denotes the region below the treeline.
Montane grasslands and shrublands
Camping is relatively safe below the treeline but the summit ridgeline is very exposed.
Mount Bogong
Like most of the range, its summit is above treeline.
Mount Madison
The altitude of the treeline comes slowly down going to higher latitudes; in northern Finnmark, the treeline reaches sea level.
Mountain ranges of Norway
The treeline is also lower near the coast, and higher on the eastern slopes of the mountains.
Mountain ranges of Norway

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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