Boreal Woodland Loamy Frozen Plain Wet

Description

The reference state has two associated communities. The phases are grouped by the structure and dominance of the vegetation (e.g., coniferous trees, deciduous trees, shrubs, and forbs) and their ecological function and stability. Plant communities in the reference state appear to be largely controlled by the influences of fire.

Fire may be an integral part of maintaining reference state vegetation. In the absence of fire, organic material accumulates and that increase facilitates tree, shrub, and moss invasion of tussocks (Viereck et al. 1992). The increase of non-graminoid cover is thought to lead to the senesce and death of tussocks (Viereck et al. 1992). Fire events remove non-graminoid cover, this disturbance provides nutrients for tussocks, and tussocks become more productive (Viereck et al. 1992).

This report provides baseline vegetation inventory data for the ecological site. More data collection is needed to provide further information about existing plant communities and the disturbance regimes that would result in transitions from one community to another. The common and scientific plant names are from the USDA PLANTS database. All plant communities in this report are characterized using the Alaska Vegetation Classification (Viereck et al. 1992).

Submodel