Alpine dwarf scrub gravelly slopes

Description

The reference plant community (community 1.1) is dryas dwarf scrub (Viereck et al. 1992). There are three plant communities in the reference state related to either snowpack or fire.

Community 1.2 occurs in sheltered positions that have atypically deep snowpack. These sheltered positions are small in size, occur in close proximity to community 1.1, and commonly occur on the leeward side of rock outcrops and/or sharp ridges or on steep northing facing slopes. These sheltered positions were often observed to have snowpack that persisted for longer durations of time compared to the more wide-spread community 1.1. This persistent snowpack led to community 1.2 having slightly moister soils. Both of these communities have the potential to burn resulting in community 1.3.

Cryoturbation is process associated with this state that results in the formation of non-sorted circles, sorted circles, and sorted stripes. Cryoturbation is a collective term used to describe all soil movements due to frost action, characterized by folded, broken and dislocated beds and lenses of unconsolidated deposits (Schoeneberger and Wysocki 2017). Since non-sorted circles are uncommon for this site and data did not support these features having a vegetation mosaic, no alternative state was developed for this site (see R231XY134AK for a site that does have this alternate state). No alternative state or plant communities were developed for sorted circles and stripes as they are primarily barren rock.

Submodel