Abstract for CNVC00288

Wetland
Wetland

Picea mariana – Larix laricina / Rhododendron groenlandicum / Gaultheria hispidula / Sphagnum spp.

Black Spruce – Tamarack / Common Labrador Tea / Creeping Snowberry / Peat Mosses
Épinette noire – Mélèze laricin / Thé du Labrador / Petit thé / Sphaignes

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CNVC00288 is a boreal wetland coniferous forest Association that ranges from Manitoba to Quebec. It has an open to moderately closed canopy of black spruce (Picea mariana) and tamarack (Larix laricina). The understory is species poor, with a preponderance of ericaceous species. The shrub layer is well developed, comprising abundant common Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum) and regenerating black spruce, with lower abundance of velvet-leaved blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides). Speckled alder (Alnus incana) can be abundant in the shrub layer. The poorly to moderately developed herb layer commonly includes creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula), three-leaved false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum trifolium), bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) and Carex spp. The moss layer is continuous and dominated by peat mosses (Sphagnum spp.), but feathermosses including red-stemmed feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi), knight’s plume moss (Ptilium crista-castrensis) and stairstep moss (Hylocomium splendens) are common on dry microsites (e.g., peat hummocks). CNVC00288 occurs on wet, nutrient-poor to medium sites in a region with a boreal continental climate that grades from subhumid in the west to humid in the east. Substrates are usually organic soils formed from slowly decomposing Sphagnum and other mosses. Although fire can occasionally occur, this is typically a stable condition that is maintained by a persistently high water table and poor to medium nutrient conditions; local hydrology is the main driver of vegetation dynamics.

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