BIOL 2903 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sphagnum, Muskeg, Larix Laricina
8 May 2016
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Document Summary
Boreal forest is on the canadian shield. Peatlands are major habitats in the hbl when peat > 45 cm thick and wet. The hbl is ne of the largest expanses of continuous muskeg in the world ! Stunted black spruce and tamarack are found in hbl muskeg. Bogs and fens are two major types of peatlands. Bogs receive water and nutrients only by rainfall and are sphagnum-dominated. Fens receive nutrients from flowing groundwater such as streams and are often sedge-dominated. How do peatlands form: peatlands often begin in lake-fill. Sphagnum moss grows with the sedges and forms a floating sphagnum mat. Sphagnum modifies the environment making it: acidic, nutrient poor, and oxygen deprived. Sphagnum provides its own water by being built like a sponge. Peatland mosses have another unusual feature they form the soil. What might grow on the nutrient-deficient, oxygen poor, acidic, wet, cold mat: lichens, especially reindeer lichens.
