Calcareous, Dry Arctic Mountain Slopes

Description

The reference plant community is Arctic dryas tundra (Viereck et al. 1992). There is only one known plant community currently associated with this State. Solifluction creates a mosaic of vegetation with barren or lichen and moss dominated sparse vegetated patches. This mosaic is described by a singular community in this ecological site. Solifluction is the slow, viscous downslope flow of water-saturated soil (Shoeneberger and Wysocki 2017). This process is most active for this ecological site during spring thaw where the upper band of soil material slips on a seasonally frozen layer.

Cryoturbation is associated with this state and is responsible for mosaic patchiness in the vegetation. 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). Cryoturbation and solifluction are known to cause disturbance and vegetative changes. However, documentation for and understanding of these changes was not found and so no alternative state was captured.

Submodel