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Potential insolation and plant communities through treeline in the Lower Anderson River valley, N.W.T., Canada Kesting, Stephan Fritz
Abstract
The Lower Anderson River Valley was chosen as a study area to investigate the effects of slope, aspect, and insolation on plant community composition and distribution through the treeline ecotone. Seventy-one plant communities were surveyed; abiotic measurements included soil temperature and depth to frozen soil. Soil samples were taken and later analyzed for pH, conductivity, and particle size distribution. TWINSPAN, a divisive clustering algorithm, defined 4 basic community-types for study area: Tundra, Forest, Steppe, and Sparse. Except for Sparse these community-types have quite discrete distributions along a potential insolation gradient. Sparse communitytypes are associated with acidic, high conductivity soils near smoking bituminous shale deposits. Equivalent latitude, a variable expressing potential insolation relative to flat surfaces at given latitudes, explained about 7 times more of the variance in Detrended Correspondence Analysis axis 1 scores than latitude alone. N Canonical Correlation Analysis was employed to further investigate the relationship of plant community composition to the measured environmental variables. The most important trend underlying plant community composition was found to be a potential insolation-soil temperature gradient. Anderson River Steppe is the eastern-most example described to date of so-called 'arctic steppe', which is thought to have been much more extensive in Beringia during the Wisconsin glacial maximum. Steppe communities occurred primarily on southfacing slopes and occupied at least 560 hectares/kilometer along the Lower Anderson River. Three major northward range extensions were associated with species found in south-facing Steppe.
Item Metadata
Title |
Potential insolation and plant communities through treeline in the Lower Anderson River valley, N.W.T., Canada
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1996
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Description |
The Lower Anderson River Valley was chosen as a study area to
investigate the effects of slope, aspect, and insolation on plant
community composition and distribution through the treeline ecotone.
Seventy-one plant communities were surveyed; abiotic measurements
included soil temperature and depth to frozen soil. Soil samples were
taken and later analyzed for pH, conductivity, and particle size
distribution. TWINSPAN, a divisive clustering algorithm, defined 4
basic community-types for study area: Tundra, Forest, Steppe, and
Sparse. Except for Sparse these community-types have quite discrete
distributions along a potential insolation gradient. Sparse communitytypes
are associated with acidic, high conductivity soils near smoking
bituminous shale deposits. Equivalent latitude, a variable expressing
potential insolation relative to flat surfaces at given latitudes,
explained about 7 times more of the variance in Detrended
Correspondence Analysis axis 1 scores than latitude alone. N Canonical
Correlation Analysis was employed to further investigate the
relationship of plant community composition to the measured
environmental variables. The most important trend underlying plant
community composition was found to be a potential insolation-soil
temperature gradient. Anderson River Steppe is the eastern-most
example described to date of so-called 'arctic steppe', which is thought
to have been much more extensive in Beringia during the Wisconsin
glacial maximum. Steppe communities occurred primarily on southfacing
slopes and occupied at least 560 hectares/kilometer along the
Lower Anderson River. Three major northward range extensions were
associated with species found in south-facing Steppe.
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Extent |
5560100 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-02-06
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0086979
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1996-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
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Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.