Abstract for CNVC00278

Forest
Forêt

Abies balsamea / Pleurozium schreberi – Sphagnum spp.

Balsam Fir / Red-stemmed Feathermoss – Peat Mosses
Sapin baumier / Pleurozie dorée – Sphaignes

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CNVC00278 is a boreal coniferous forest Association that occurs in Quebec and insular Newfoundland. It has a closed canopy dominated by balsam fir (Abies balsamea), usually with smaller components of black spruce (Picea mariana) and paper birch (Betula papyrifera). Regeneration of these tree species, particularly balsam fir, also dominates the moderately to well-developed shrub layer. The herb layer can vary from poorly developed to dense, depending on subassociation, but usually includes bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula), twinflower (Linnaea borealis), yellow clintonia (Clintonia borealis), goldthread (Coptis trifolia) and northern starflower (Lysimachia borealis). Feathermosses, especially red-stemmed feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi), but also knight’s plume moss (Ptilium crista-castrensis) and stairstep moss (Hylocomium splendens), dominate the continuous moss layer, but peat mosses (Sphagnum spp.), are also abundant and help to characterize this Association. CNVC00278 occurs mainly on moist to mesic, nutrient-medium sites in a region with a boreal climate that grades from humid continental in the west to very humid and more maritime in the east. It is a late seral condition with dynamics that are mainly driven by insect outbreaks, especially of spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana), windthrow and disease. There are three subassociations: typic, Sphagnum spp. and Bazzania trilobata.

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