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Shasta National Forest: Biotic Communities and Disturbance Regime

  Shasta National Forest's Biotic Communities Western North America Alpine Tundra Conditions Western North America Alpine Tundra (WNA Alpine Tundra) ecosystems are found on mountain ranges along the west coast of North America, including the mid-elevations on Mount Shasta (Billings & Meidinger 2015). This ecosystem is characterized by short growing seasons and long winters with high snowpack. Soils in this ecosystem tend to be shallow, rocky, low in organics, and well drained (Billings & Meidinger 2015) .  Plant Communities Plants commonly found in the WNA Alpine Tundra ecosystem on Mount Shasta include wildflowers in the genus Eriogonum , like Sulphur Buckwheat ( Eriogonum umbellatum ), and some trees at lower elevations such as Lodgepole Pine ( Pinus contorta ) (Billings & Meidinger 2015; Anderson 2003; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) & United States Forest Service (USFS) 2016; USDA & USFS 2014) .  Sulphur Buckwheat. Source . Sulphur B...
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Canadian Shield: Biotic Communities and Disturbance Regimes

Biotic Communities and Disturbance Regimes in the Canadian Shield Biotic Communities        Baffin Island T he vegetation of the Canadian Arctic is the tundra. Plants species in the tundra are very limited and the length of their growing season is short. Cotton grass, sedge, dwarf heath, shrubs, mosses and lichens are the most common vegetation in the Canadian Arctic (Aun et al. 2002).  T hree types of ecosystems are contained in the Canadian Arctic: the Arctic Cordillera, Northern Arctic and Southern Arctic, with Baffin Island being in the Northern Arctic.   Because of its harsh climate, high winds and shallow soils, the vegetation of the Northern Arctic is sparse and dwarfed (Aun et al. 2002).   Life in the polar regions is far from easy. Winter temperatures can reach deep into the negatives, and the winter night can last for months (WWF). But these landscapes which are lacking in vegetation are home to a rich diversity of wildlife, both on land and ...
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The Canadian Shield

  The Canadian Shield consists of over eight million square kilometers of pre-Cambrian “shield”, and is the exposed portion of the ancient geological core of North America. It also includes a small portion of the northeastern United States. Three locations within the Canadian Shield which exhibit varying characteristics in their underlying physical environments are: Baffin Island, an island which belongs to the Canadian territory of Nunavut; La Veredrye Wildlife Reserve in  Montcerf-Lytton, a municipality in Quebec, Canada; and Big Falls, a small town in north-central Minnesota. These three locations display three very different climate patterns. Below are climographs representing the climate normals for each location. One characteristic that is shared by the entirety of the Canadian Shield is very thin soil due to glaciation.       Baffin Island's soil is primarily permafrost, a permanently frozen layer beneath the earth's surface. Source: nrdc.org The soi...
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