La végétation des combes à neige du golfe de Richmond, Québec nordique

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Botany
• Main Authors: Morin, Hubert, Payette, Serge
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1986
• Subjects: Plant Science; Hudson Bay; Hudson
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b86-207; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/b86-207

An exhaustive survey of snow patches, along an altitudinal gradient situated in an area of about 10 km 2 along the Hudson Bay highlands, underlines the role of altitude, exposition, and topography in maintaining these habitats. The principal component analysis from a stratified sampling of the snow patches in the three cuesta lithological zones (arkose, dolomite, and basalt) stresses the effect of the snow melt gradient on species distribution within a snow patch. The ordination of abiotic variables performed on the ordination frame of snow patches shows that lithology and substratum are the principal factors responsible for the vegetation characteristics, allowing the determination of two main types of snow patches in the arkose and dolomite zones and three types in the basalt zone.