Ottawa St. Lawrence Lowland Flashcards
Cattail Marshes experience this every year (change in water)
Perioding Flooding and Drawdowns
Cattails use what kind of seed dispersal?
Wind dispersal
Do Cattails form a floating mat?
Yes, they do, similar to sphagnum moss
What is the significance of the Marsh Fern?
It is an indicator of Cattail Marshes
What kind of moth is associated with Cattail Marshes?
Cattail Moth Caterpillar - they eat the cattail
These mammals love cattail marshes and females sometimes kill their neighbours babies. What are they?
Muskrats
This bird is polygamous and Males commonly assert their territory in marsh environments. What is it?
Red-winged blackbird
What other birds are common in Cattail Marshes?
Common Yellowthroat, Marsh wren, Pied-billed Grebes
What is significant about the Virginia Rail?
It is an indicator species of Cattail Marshes
Cattails are not submergent but?
Emergent
How does Duckweed grow?
Duckweed is floating vegetation and grows on water surface
White Water-lilies are submergent and Floating, how?
Their leaves and flowers float but their stems and rhizomes are submerged
What other type of lily grows in Cattail Marshes?
Yellow Pond-lily
What are Marsh Bluets?
Common Marsh Damselflies
What is the dominant group of dragonflies in Marshes?
Skimmers
What kind of herps live in Cattail Marshes?
Bullfrogs, Water Snakes, Painted Turtles, Snapping Turtles
What difference does the Painted Turtle in the Boreal forest have from the one found in the Great Lakes and ottawa lowland?
Their underside of the shell has a different appearance and pattern
What is significant about the Snapping turtle?
It reaches its Northern limits are in the GL-SL region
What kind of bigger birds are common in Cattail Marshes?
American bitterns, Least bitterns (threatened), Great Blue Heron, Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night-heron (feed at night and roost during the day), Green Heron
What Ducks are found in Marshes?
Wood ducks, Mallards, other puddle ducks
What are the two different types of cattails?
Broad leaf and narrow leaf, broad are native and narrow are not
What kind of bedrock underlies the Ottawa-SL Lowland?
Predominantly sedimentary limestone
What kind of plant is abundant in Cedar Wood swamps?
There are a large diversity of orchids in Cedar swamps, such as the Round-leaved Orchid
What other kind of plant is present in cedar swamps that inhabits openings?
Yellow-lady’s slipper and also showy Lady’s slipper
What kinds of herps are present in Cedar swamps?
Wood frog and Blue-spotted Salamander
What kind of habitat is rare in the lowlands?
Peatlands are rare, however there are some fens rich in nutrients
What kinds of plants would be present in fens in the lowland because of the nutrients present?
Many orchids because of the vast amount of calcium
What is significant about the Elfin Skimmer?
It is the smallest dragonfly in north america
What are the names of the two important fens?
White Lake fen and Richmond Fen
What bird reaches its southern limit in the alfred bog?
The Palm Warbler
How was the Ottawa-SL lowland affected by the champlain sea?
It left behind huge deposits of clay and sand
What kind of beetle is present in Slack Road Sand dunes?
Ghost Tiger Beetle
What grows in the Constance Bay Sands?
Orange Milkweed
What problems does forest fragmentation create?
size of habitat too small for deep forest species to survive, Lack of recruitment (no more influx of species), Increased Brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds, Increased predation (cats kill 200 million birds per year in canada)
What kind of birds live in field habitats?
Killdeer, Upland sandpiper, american crow, Ring-billed Guls
Where do Horned larks nest?
In plowed Fields
Farm fields can resemble the habitat of which region?
The tundra
The first plants to grow in fields always display these two characteristics
Wind-dispersal and adaptations for sunny habitats
What kind of small mammals are common in plowed fields?
Meadowvoles
What is a fallow field?
A field that is let to grow wild
The Northern Shrike is only present in Fallow fields during what seasons?
Late fall and winter
What are the main predatory birds which feed on meadow voles in Fallow fields?
Red-tailed hawk, Short-eared owl, snowy owl, Great-grey owl (usually only during irruptions)
What kind of mammals hunt in fallow fields?
Red Fox and Easter Coyote
What are the major differences between the Eastern Coyote and the Eastern Wolf?
The coyote has a different snout and vocalizations, as well as the fact that wolves do not hunt in open fields
What are the main characteristics of fallow field plants?
Shade-intolerant, Small leaves at 45 degrees, wind or animal seed dispersal, non-native
What are some of the non-native plants present in fallow fields?
Dandelion, Blueweed, Chicory, Queen anne’s lace, Ox-eye Daisy
What are some of the non-native animals present in fallow fields?
Grey Partridge, Ring-necked pheasants (spurs on the back of their legs), Wild turkeys (also have a spur on the back of their legs)
What globally rare habitat is found in the GL-SL lowlands?
Alvars - flat limestone with very little soil over it
What are some indicators of Alvars?
Fringed Gentian, Calciphiles (yellow lady’s slipper), Ram’s-head lady’s slipper, Eastern Red Cedars (loggerhead shrikes nest in these/impale their prey on hawthorne bushes)
What endangered habitat is present in Rice Lake plains?
Tallgrass prairie with prairie cord grass and big bluestem
Oak savannah is also a tall grass prairie but has what characteristic?
10-30% tree cover, white and black oaks, and prairie species (lupines, prairie buttercup, Mottle Duskwing)
what animal is considered to be “the currency of the wild”?
Meadow voles
What plants/rare butterfly are found at Newington bog?
Leatherleaf, bog laurel, Rhodora (new site for this)
Rare butterfly- bog elfin (found in a few locations)
What is found at mere bleue trail?
Peatland, Labrador tee, cotton grass, laurels, leatherleaf, Witch’s broom, Spotted turtle (endangered and extremely rare)
What Birds exploit slack road sand dunes for nest sites?
They burrow holes into the side of the sand: Belted kingfisher (catch fish- massive heads, big bills, band on upper chest). Bank swallow (dig cavities in sand banks, live in colonies) (bank burrowing brown birds, band on upper chest)
