Northern Arctic
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ECOLOGICAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES NORTHERN ARCTIC ECOSYSTEM CLASSIFICATION GROUP Department of Environment and Natural Resources Government of the Northwest Territories 2013 ECOLOGICAL REGIONS OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES NORTHERN ARCTIC This report may be cited as: Ecosystem Classification Group. 2013. Ecological Regions of the Northwest Territories – Northern Arctic. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, NT, Canada. x + 157 pp. + insert map (printed copies). Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Northwest Territories. Ecosystem Classification Group Ecological regions of the Northwest Territories, northern Arctic / Ecosystem Classification Group. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-7708-0205-9 1. Ecological regions--Northwest Territories. 2. Biotic communities--Arctic regions. I. Northwest Territories. Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources II. Title. QH106.2 N55 N67 2013 577.09719'3 C2013-980025-5 For more information contact: Department of Environment and Natural Resources P.O. Box 1320 Yellowknife, NT X1A 2L9 Phone: (867) 920-8064 Fax: (867) 873-0293 Web Site: http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca About the cover: The main cover photo shows Bailey Point, located on the north side of Liddon Gulf (Melville Coastal Plain MA Ecoregion, p. 54). A muskox skull on lush green tundra is in the foreground on the back cover. In the midground is multi-year pack ice, and in the far distance is the low dome of the Dundas Peninsula and to the right of the title on the front cover, the uplands of Melville Island. Bailey Point contains the most favourable habitat for muskoxen among the High Arctic Islands north of M’Clure Strait. As a critical refuge for these animals, it has been an important source for restocking neighbouring regions after harsh climatic conditions caused heavy mortalities in poorer habitats. Such dispersals are an important adaptation in the Arctic Islands. Small herds have been observed recently on and near Bailey Point. The small digital images in the inset boxes on the cover are enlarged with captions on page 28 (Northern Arctic High Arctic-oceanic Ecoregion), page 36 (Northern Arctic High Arctic Ecoregion), page 52 (Northern Arctic Mid-Arctic Ecoregion) and page 80 (Northern Arctic Low Arctic-north Ecoregion). Aerial images: Dave Downing. Ground images, main cover image and plant images: Bob Decker, Government of the Northwest Territories. Document images: Except where otherwise credited, aerial images in the document were taken by Dave Downing and ground-level images were taken by Bob Decker, Government of the Northwest Territories. Members of the Ecosystem Classification Group Dave Downing Ecologist, Onoway, Alberta. Bob Decker Forest Ecologist, Forest Resources, Forest Management Division, Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, Hay River, Northwest Territories. Tom Chowns Environmental Consultant, Powassan, Ontario. Charles Tarnocai Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Dr. Suzanne Carrière Wildlife Biologist (Biodiversity), Wildlife Division, Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Brian Maier Resource Analyst, Forcorp Solutions Inc., Edmonton, Alberta. Kathleen Groenewegen GIS Specialist, Forest Resources, Forest Management Division, Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, Hay River, Northwest Territories. i Acknowledgements The authors thank Bas Oosenbrug who had the vision and the drive to initiate this project in 2004 and the scientific, organizational and editorial skills to effectively manage the project and the team until his retirement in 2010. We enjoyed our collaborations with Bas and value our lasting friendship with him. The support of Tom Lakusta (Forest Management Division, Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories [GNWT]), Dr. Nicole McCutchen, Lynda Yonge, Susan Fleck (Wildlife Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, GNWT) is gratefully acknowledged. Evelyn Gah (Protected Areas Strategy, Land and Water Division, Environment and Natural Resources, GNWT) has provided valuable technical and editorial support to the project and was part of the initial planning team for this project. Martin Callaghan (Forest Management Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, GNWT Inuvik) and Tracy Davison (Inuvik Region, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, GNWT both provided assistance with field logistics advice and weather information. We thank David Kroetsch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, for providing the initial classification upon which the Northwest Territories version was built; John Downing, for assistance in obtaining and interpreting bedrock geology information; and Wayne Pettapiece, for compiling most of the glossary of terms in Appendix 5. We also acknowledge members of the 1995 Ecological Stratification Working Group, members of the 1989 Ecoclimatic Regions Working Group and all researchers who compiled various geologic and natural resource assessments for the area. In particular, we thank Sylvia Edlund for her insightful ecological descriptions and frameworks that proved indispensable to delineation of ecoregions for the northern islands and climatic concepts for the southern islands. Joanna Wilson (Wildlife Biologist (Species at risk), Wildlife Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, GNWT) and Craig Machtans (Biologist, Environment Canada) provided thoughtful reviews of the document. Field support and accommodation throughout the Northern Arctic was courteously provided by the Holman Co-op Arctic Char Inn (Ulukhaktok) and by Roger and Jackie Kuptana at the PolarGrizz Lodge (Sachs Harbour). Roger and Jackie also provided valuable insights into the landscapes and wildlife of the Northern Arctic, particularly Banks Island. Gary Bristow (fuel manager, Ulukhaktok) provided useful information on winter conditions in the Minto Inlet area. Parks Canada (Sachs Harbour and Inuvik) provided documents and helpful information; thanks to John Lucas and Molly Kirk for their help. Safe and reliable air transportation was provided in 2010 by Larry Buckmaster (Landa Air) and in 2011 by Kenn Borek Air Ltd. (DC-3 transport of camp to and from Mould Bay) and Canadian Helicopters (pilot Eric Krone and engineer Dan Garbutt). Susanne Downing provided data entry services for the Northern Arctic photo themes and for approximately 65,000 previous thematic records for the Taiga Plains, Taiga Shield, Cordillera and Southern Arctic ecosystem classifications. Her attention to detail and accurate transcription of handwritten records is appreciated. The Forest Management Division and Wildlife Division of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, both contributed funds and resources to the Northern Arctic Ecosystem Classification Project. ii Preface The Northwest Territories covers an area of 1,355,672 square kilometres, almost 14 percent of Canada’s land mass. It spans 2,120 km north to south from the 60th parallel to the tip of Borden Island, the most northerly point of land. This vast land, born of ancient climates and geologic upheavals and molded by the pressures of immense ice sheets, is continually transformed by sun, wind, rain and snow. Its landscapes are a living partnership linking geology, topography and climate to plants, animals and microbes in associations called ecosystems. Ecosystems in the Northwest Territories range from tiny – a single lichen on a boulder or a tree trunk – to immense expanses of forests, wetlands and tundra across the plains, uplands and mountains. In the extreme southwest, mixedwood boreal forests flourish under relatively moist, mild climates and contain trembling aspen, balsam poplar and white spruce that soar to heights of over 30 metres. They are replaced at higher latitudes and elevations by open subarctic or sub-alpine conifer forests, stunted discontinuous groves of black and white spruce, and finally by treeless frozen tundra where extreme cold, drought and exposure to winds limits plant growth on the most northerly islands and the highest elevations to scattered, sheltered patches of a few herbs, lichens, mosses and soil microbes where the largest plants hug the ground, scarcely exceeding two centimetres in height. The Northern Arctic, the area covered by this document, includes 216,771 square kilometres within the Northwest Territories and encompasses most of the islands north of the mainland. Much of Nunavut also falls within the Northern Arctic. Banks, Prince Patrick, Eglinton, Emerald, and Brock Islands lie entirely within the Northwest Territories. Melville, Mackenzie King, Borden and Victoria Islands are shared with Nunavut. Pack ice surrounds all of the islands for much of the year and records indicate that some islands (Brock, Borden, Emerald and Mackenzie King) are encircled by thick pack ice that persists for many years, except for a narrow zone of open water close to shore. Ecosystems in the Northwest Territories are connected to global ecosystems by energy and material flows through time and space, but these interactions are so complex that we cannot comprehend them in their totality. Because we depend on healthy ecosystems for our survival, we need to know how natural ecosystems are structured and how they function so that we can manage our activities for the