<P> The life zone concept was developed by C. Hart Merriam in 1889 as a means of describing areas with similar plant and animal communities . Merriam observed that the changes in these communities with an increase in latitude at a constant elevation are similar to the changes seen with an increase in elevation at a constant latitude . </P> <P> The life zones Merriam identified are most applicable to western North America, being developed on the San Francisco Peaks, Arizona and Cascade Range of the northwestern USA . He tried to develop a system that is applicable across the North American continent, but that system is rarely referred to . </P> <P> The life zones that Merriam identified, along with characteristic plants, are as follows: </P> <Ul> <Li> Lower Sonoran (low, hot desert): creosote bush, Joshua tree </Li> <Li> Upper Sonoran (desert steppe or chaparral): sagebrush, scrub oak, Colorado pinyon, Utah juniper </Li> <Li> Transition (open woodlands): ponderosa pine </Li> <Li> Canadian (fir forest): Rocky Mountain Douglas fir, quaking aspen </Li> <Li> Hudsonian (spruce forest): Engelmann spruce, Rocky Mountains bristlecone pine </Li> <Li> Arctic - Alpine (alpine meadows or tundra): lichen, grass </Li> </Ul>

Which of the following places is not in the life zone of the earth