Studies on lichen-dominated systems. VI. Interrelations of vegetation and soil moisture in the Hudson Bay Lowlands

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Botany
• Main Authors: Rouse, W. R., Kershaw, K. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1973
• Subjects: Plant Science; Hudson Bay; Hudson; Raised Beach
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b73-163; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/b73-163

Soil moisture measurements are presented for the summer period of 1971 for nine sites spaced inland from the Hudson Bay coastline adjacent to East Pen Island. The sites show a great variation in natural vegetation from a sparsely vegetated young raised-beach to older beach ridges dominated by thick mats of lichen. The sites include a non-vegetated blowout in a sand dune and areas which have been damaged by caterpillar tractors and by burning.Differences in soil moisture between sites are very pronounced and are closely related to the organic content of the soils. There are also substantial variations in the rate of soil moisture withdrawal during the summer period and this is reflected in differences in the seasonal evapotranspiration rates. The soil moisture characteristics are widely variable in the surface soils at the different sites but virtually the same at soil depths below 30 cm.