Lecture 2: Jan 10th Flashcards
Canadian Shield
Rugged, full of highlands
Hudson bay lowland
underneath is sedimentary rock, harsh environments for living things
Great St Lawrence Lowlands
Below the Canadian shield, divided into ott st lawrence lowland and the great lakes lowland, both are mostly farmland
Forest Regions
Looking at the trees in an ecological region, based on living things as opposed to rock. Defined by the dominant canopy trees in the region:
- Tundra
- Hudson bay lowland
- Boreal forest
Boreal Forest
Biggest forest in Ontario, western and eastern components. Carlinean forest is the southmost part of the province
Pleistocene
Ice age
Isostatic rebound
when the land bounces back from glacier activity. The north is still moving up as it had weight on it most recently.
Crustose Lichens
Lichens that grow tightly against the rock, colonizers of bare rocks. They are pioneer species. Some like acidic rocks and some like basic rocks
Foliose Lichens
More leaf like lichens. Some are edible (rock tripes).
Fruticose lichens
Often found colonizing bare ground, three dimensional appearance. Reindeer lichens are white and feed reindeer/caribou, british soldier lichens are red topped
Arboreal Lichens
grow on trees
Mosses
often grow with lichens, composed of a single component, can also be pioneer species.
Glacial Refugia
brought to the habitats by wind initially. Windblown trees like birches are often there first because their seeds are distributed by the wind. pioneer species. They create shade for shade loving plants, but they need sunlight to grow.
Site Conditions
- bedrock type
- soil type
- glacial deposits
- physiography
- environmental factors
Climax forest
a self sustaining forest
Ontario divided into physiographic things
- Tundra
- boreal
- carolinian
- great lakes st lawrence lowland
- Hudson Bay lowland
Indicator species
species found only in a specific physiographic region
tundra northern limit
- hudson bay is the northern limit
tundra southern limit
tree line
tundra average daily temp
-6* celsius, significant implications for the soil as it results in permafrost. No burrowing animals that hibernate in the ground because the ground is frozen.
Implications of permafrost
no burrowing animals, very little decomposition, not much enrichment therefore the soil does not build up very much
Tundra landscape
low and flat, coldest windchill in North America. This affects animals because the wind takes away body heat.
