CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Beilman, D.W.
Date : 2001.
Title : Localized permafrost peatlands in boreal western Canada: Distributions, plant communities and peatland development.
Publication : Unpublished M.Sc. thesis. University of Alberta, Edmonton.
Issue :
Page(s) : 119 p.
Abstract
Permafrost occurs in localized landforms within peatlands at its southern limit in western Canada. Extensive melt has shifted the southern limit north by 39 km on average and by as much as 200 km over the last 150 years. Localized permafrost peatlands cover 17,505 km2 of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and occur in bogs and fens representing 37% of total bog cover, and 9% of total fen cover within their distribution. Field studies indicated that localized permafrost dynamics result in the creation of both the driest/most heavily forested and the wettest/most open conditions that occur in continental bogs. Plant communities, particularly bryophytes, responded strongly to these gradients, and vascular plant and bryophyte species richness increased by 49%, making localized permafrost bogs one of the most diverse peatland types in western Canada. Permafrost melt results in highly variable plant communities and developmental histories, due in part to varying degrees of disturbance (collapse) following melt.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology