The Red-necked Grebe prefers an inland temperate climate, and is less successful near coasts and in subarctic and warm temperate zones.

Boreal forests occupy the subarctic zone and are generally evergreen and coniferous.

The northernmost of the three microthermal zones is the subarctic, or boreal zone; there only one to three months will have average temperatures of at least 10 C.

In interior arctic, subarctic, and boreal zones, climate is strongly continental in the west, becoming more humid to the east.

The Falkland Islands have a maritime climate in the transition region between the temperate and subarctic zones (Köppen classifications Cfb and Cfc respectively).

The timing of the pupping season varies with location, occurring in February for populations in lower latitudes, and as late as July in the subarctic zone.

The large body size (see also Bergmann's Rule) and distribution of the Steller's Sea Eagle suggests that it is a glacial relict, meaning that it evolved in a narrow subarctic zone of the northeasternmost Asian coasts, which shifted its latitude according to ice age cycles, and never occurred anywhere else.

Hemiboreal means halfway between the temperate and subarctic (or boreal) zones.

Orchids may be found distributed about the subarctic and temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere: from Scandinavia to North Africa, Madeira, Iceland, Asia Minor, Russia, the Himalayas, North America and Alaska.

The English use of the word taiga refers to a subarctic zone of evergreen coniferous forests, while the Japanese word taiga (大河) means "(great) river".