The Hudson Bay Lowlands

Question 1

What are the northern and southern limits of the HBL?

Answer 1

Northern limit=tree line with continuous canopy forest, southern limit= boreal forest

Question 2

What is the HBL underlain by?

Answer 2

sedimentary limestone

Question 3

What is the average daily temperature?

Answer 3

-3 to -6 degrees C which = short growing season. Discontinous permafrost

Question 4

What are the dominant habitats in the HBL?

Answer 4

Peatlands, red sphagnum moss is a dominant moss that colonizes wetlands and creates peatlands.

Question 5

What is it called if the Peat> 45cm thick and wet

Answer 5

muskeg. The HBL is one of the largest expanses in the world of Muskeg

Question 6

Stunted black spruce and tamarack are not dwarfs in the HBL, What are they?

Answer 6

they are stunted in growth form

Question 7

What are the two major categories of peatlands?

Answer 7

Bogs: a true bog receives water and nutrients only by rainfall and are dominated by sphagnum moss.
Fens: receive nutrients from flowing groundwater such as streams and are often sedge dominated.

Question 8

How do peatlands form?

Answer 8

First there is water left by the melting glaciers, plants grow at the edge of the water in a form called lakefill, sedges colonize and grow out into the water, sphagnum moss then starts growing around the sedges

Question 9

Sphagnum moss

Answer 9

is one of the most powerful plants in Ontario, it can grow on top of water and it can grow on top of itself.
Sphagnum moss modifies the environment making it more acidic, more nutrient poor, and oxygen deprived. It provides its own water because it is built like a sponge.
Peatland mosses have another unusual feature they form the soil. Slowly the mat grows thicker and spreads, choking the water the lower portion of the moss mat dies and more sphagnum grows on top of it

Question 10

Heath plants

Answer 10

Dominant group of plants in bogs, have mycorrhizal associations on their roots. Examples: bog laurel, cranberry, bog rosemary, leatherleaf.

Question 11

What are the three types of carnivorous plants?

Answer 11

Pit fall traps (pitcher plants, Suction traps (bladderwort) and adhesive traps (sun dew)

Question 12

Eventually the moss fills into the bottom of the pond, trees grow larger on the top of the of the grounded mat, what kind of forests form?

Answer 12

Black spruce forest forms

Question 13

As a peatland mat _______, diversity ___________

Answer 13

increases; decreases

Question 14

What does the youngest edge of the mat do?

Answer 14

Its called the sphagnum lawn and it supports the greatest diversity of plants (most of the carnivorous plants grow here)

Question 15

What is paludification?

Answer 15

An important/common way the peatlands are formed in the HBL. Water is coming in and the habitat is changing and forming.

Question 16

What’s a climax pattern?

Answer 16

its a general habitat type/ various habitat types that occur during different conditions throughout different time periods.

Question 17

Shallow ponds

Answer 17

American toad (not freeze tolerant so they burrow into the ground and this is when the discontinuous permafrost benefits them), spring peepers, sandhill cranes, Lesser yellowlegs nest only in HBL,

Question 18

The stunted spruce provide habitat for:

Answer 18

Birds, northern shrikes nest in the HBL muskeg in the summer they are found primarily in the HBL could be an indicator species

Question 19

Why are rivers an important habitat?

Answer 19

They move sort and deposit material creating drier substrates for plants. Rising water levels create raise banks along their shores which allows for a greater diversity of plants and animals in the HBL bc the sphagnum moss doesnt dominate here which means access to calcium.

Question 20

Examples of calciphillic plants that grow on the shoreline of HBL

Answer 20

Alpine Bistort and False asphodel, Butterwort is a northern carnivorous plant that likes calcium, and many kinds of orchids grow on the shoreline like sparrows egg lady slipper.

Question 21

Birds in the HBL

Answer 21

Orange warbler , Fox sparrow, Pine grosbeak (finch), Black backed woodpecker (not an indicator, found in coniferous trees not in muskeg), Gray jay (in coniferous not all through muskeg, stores food) Spruce grouse

Question 22

Snowshoe hare

Answer 22

In the HBL, eats spruce bark/needles

Question 23

What animals eat the seed from spruce cones

Answer 23

white winged cross bills specialized for eating seeds, red squirrels

Question 24

Hudsonian godwit

Answer 24

indicator species

Question 25

Maritime plants and animals

Answer 25

Colonizes sand on the edge of the ocean: Beach pea (also grows on shores/sandy area of James bay), jellyfish

Question 26

HBL is flat with one major exception, what is it?

Answer 26

The sutton hills/ridges: bery new habitat, precambrian (mostly granite), Disjunct populations of plants like rock polypody, greenland sandwort, and alpine saxifrage.

Question 27

Why is there a lot of relief to the south of the HBL?

Answer 27

The Canadian shield