Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Ecological site F097XA002MI
Backdune
Last updated: 1/16/2024
Accessed: 11/21/2024
General information
Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.
MLRA notes
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 097X–Southwestern Michigan Fruit and Vegetable Crop Belt
Physiography consists of sandy lake plains and dunes along the western side adjacent to Lake Michigan, and moderately sloping fine-loamy moraine from the Lake Michigan lobe of the Wisconsin Ice Sheet.
Vegetation is mostly mesophytic forests of central and northern hardwood and conifer species with prairie and oak savanna to the south. Compared to inland locations, cold sensitive hardwood species extend further north due to milder winters, and conifers extend further south due to cooler summers, heavier snowfall, and sandier soils. Lake effect snow and delayed spring warm up dampen the fire frequency relative to similar inland sites, except along the south side of Lake Michigan. The northern extent is defined by a major floristic boundary where several central hardwoods species drop out. The southern boundary is defined by fine-loamy moraines with predominantly prairie vegetation.
The ecological site inference area for MLRA 97 is subdivided along a floristic/climatic break roughly from New Buffalo, Michigan to Portage, Indiana. This corresponds to the heaviest lake effect snow belt (>160 cm) south and east of this line and is associated lower historic fire frequencies. The snow belt portion “A”, has more frequent conifer and beech, while the less snowy portion “B” has more prairie and savanna elements. Although differing in precise boundary location, both USFS and EPA ecoregions support a climatic/floristic break at the next higher rank in their respective hierarchies.
Classification relationships
Among the USFS ecoregional framework (Cleland et al., 2007), most of MLRA 97 is represented by the Humid Temperate Domain (200), Hot Continental Division (220), Midwest Broadleaf Forest Province (222), South Central Great Lakes Section (222J), subsections 222Ja and 222Jb. MLRA 97 was recently extended northward to be more consistent with the limits of the USFS ecoregions subsections 222Ja and 222Jb, because it is more consistent with vegetation patterns and species distributions. A former portion of MLRA 97 that extended westward from the southern end of Lake Michigan (including most of the city of Chicago) was recently removed from the MLRA due to its predominantly non-sandy deposits and reduced lake effect climate, and would have overlapped USFS ecoregion 222K.
Among the EPA ecoregional framework (Omernik and Griffith, 2014), most of MLRA 97 falls within Eastern Temperate Forests (Level I: 8), Mixed Wood Plains (Level II: 8.1), Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (Level III: 56), and Level IV: 56d and 56f. Ecoregion 56f continues north beyond MLRA 97. Former portions of MLRA 97 that encompassed the city of Chicago included Level III ecoregion 54, Central Corn Belt Plains, before the last revision of MRLA boundaries.
Ecological site concept
The central concept of the Backdune is old parabolic dunes that formed during higher lake levels thousands of years ago and have since become stabilized with forest vegetation. The vegetation tends to have a mix of mesophytic species like beech, maple, basswood, and hemlock due to the lack of fire, presence of fog, and possible calcium enrichment from lake spray. The forest margin on the windward side generally has a more xerophytic composition of pine and oak due to younger, more nitrogen impoverished soils, and exposure to more sunlight and sand abrasion. On occasion, some dunes become unstable and begin to migrate inland, uprooting trees and creating open sand dune vegetation on the windward side and burying trees on the lee/inland side.
Associated sites
| R097XA001MI |
Beach And Foredune |
|---|
Similar sites
| F097XA010MI |
Sandy Slopes |
|---|---|
| F097XB003IN |
Chicago Backdune |
| R097XA001MI |
Beach And Foredune |
Table 1. Dominant plant species
| Tree |
(1) Fagus grandifolia |
|---|---|
| Shrub |
Not specified |
| Herbaceous |
(1) Maianthemum canadense |
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