BOREAL LOW ZONE OF YUKON Southern Lakes Boreal Low Subzone (BOLsl) A Field Guide to Ecosite Identification Government BOREAL LOW ZONE OF YUKON Southern Lakes Boreal Low Subzone (BOLsl): A Field Guide to Ecosite Identification Part 1: Introduction Chapter 1.0: Introduction by Nadele Flynn Chapter 2.0: Yukon Bioclimate Ecosystem Classification (YBEC) System by Nadele Flynn, Catherine Kennedy and Del Meidinger Chapter 3.0: How to Identify Ecosystems by Del Meidinger, Nadele Flynn, Karen McKenna and Catherine Kennedy Chapter 4.0: Bioclimate Zones of Yukon by Nadele Flynn Chapter 5.0: The Boreal Low Zone of Yukon by Karen McKenna and Nadele Flynn Chapter 6.0: Subzones of the Boreal Low Zone by Nadele Flynn and Karen McKenna ISBN: 978-1-55362-792-0 Part 1 of this publication contains introductory information about ecosite identification in the field and the Yukon Bioclimate Ecosystem Classification System. Part 2 contains ecosite description chapters for the Southern Lakes Boreal Low Subzone as well as appendices. Citation Citation of this publication should be: Environment Yukon. 2017. Southern Lakes Boreal Low Subzone (BOLsl): A Field Guide to Ecosite Identification. Boreal Low Zone Series. Department of Environment, Government of Yukon, Whitehorse, Yukon. Each chapter has defined authorship; an example of how a chapter should be cited is as follows: Meidinger D., N. Flynn, K. McKenna, C. E. Kennedy. 2017. Chapter 3: How to identify ecosystems. In: Southern Lakes Boreal Low Subzone (BOLsl): A Field Guide to Ecosite Identification. Department of Environment, Government of Yukon, Whitehorse, Yukon. Photos and illustrations are copyrighted to the Government of Yukon unless otherwise noted and should not be reproduced for individual benefit. Notification of errors or omissions should be directed to the ELC Coordinator. Authors’ Affiliation Del Meidinger, Meidinger Ecological Consultants Ltd. Victoria, B.C. Karen McKenna, Cryogeographic Consulting Whitehorse, Yukon Catherine E. Kennedy, Vegetation Ecologist, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Department of Environment, Government of Yukon Whitehorse, Yukon Nadele Flynn, Coordinator, Ecological and Landscape Classification Program, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Department of Environment, Government of Yukon Whitehorse, Yukon Copies of this report, including a digital version, are available: Ecological and Landscape Classification (ELC) Program Fish and Wildlife Branch, Department of Environment, Government of Yukon Box 2703 (V-5), Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6 867-667-3081 [email protected] For more information on the ELC program and other publications, visit www.env.gov.yk.ca/elc. © 2017 Government of Yukon When using information from this report, please cite fully and correctly. Contents, Part 1 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... 1-v 1.0 Introduction ..................................................................................... 1-1 1.1 Objectives/scope ................................................................................... 1-1 1.2 Regulatory and standards context .............................................................1-3 1.3 Other sources of information .....................................................................1-3 1.4 Guide content ........................................................................................1-4 1.5 Limitations of the guide ............................................................................1-5 1.6 Training courses ......................................................................................1-5 2.0 Yukon Bioclimate Ecosystem Classification (YBEC) System ........................1-7 2.1 An overview ..........................................................................................1-7 2.2 Bioclimate classification ...........................................................................1-8 2.2.1 Bioclimate unit names and codes .....................................................1-9 2.3 Site classification ................................................................................... 1-10 2.3.1 Site unit names and codes ............................................................. 1-10 2.4 Vegetation classification ..........................................................................1-11 2.4.1 Vegetation unit names and codes ....................................................1-11 2.5 YBEC and climate change ....................................................................... 1-13 3.0 How to identify ecosystems .............................................................. 1-15 3.1 Identifying bioclimate units ..................................................................... 1-15 3.2 Describing and identifying ecosites .......................................................... 1-18 3.2.1 Describing sites .......................................................................... 1-18 3.2.2 Identifying site units .....................................................................1-20 3.2.3 Ecosite description .....................................................................1-29 3.2.4 Integrating the site and vegetation information ...............................1-32 3.3 Identifying vegetation units ....................................................................1-33 4.0 Bioclimate Zones of Yukon ................................................................1-35 5.0 The Boreal Low Zone of Yukon ............................................................1-39 5.1 Location and distribution ........................................................................1-39 5.2 Climate ...............................................................................................1-39 5.3 Permafrost ...........................................................................................1-40 5.4 Vegetation and Soils .............................................................................. 1-41 5.5 Disturbance..........................................................................................1-43 5.6 Rare ecosystems ...................................................................................1-45 6.0 Subzones of the Boreal Low Zone .......................................................1-47 6.1 BOLal Alsek Boreal Low Subzone ..........................................................1-50 6.2 BOLkp Klondike Plateau Boreal Low Subzone .......................................... 1-51 6.3 BOLlh Liard-Hyland Boreal Low Subzone ................................................1-52 6.4 BOLlr La Biche River Boreal Low Subzone ...............................................1-53 6.5 BOLrr Ruby Ranges Boreal Low Subzone ................................................1-54 6.6 BOLsl Southern Lakes Boreal Low Subzone .............................................1-55 6.7 BOLyn Yukon Plateau North Boreal Low Subzone ......................................1-56 6.8 BOLyc Yukon Plateau Central Boreal Low Subzone .................................... 1-57 References, Part 1 ..................................................................................1-58 List of figures Figure 1-1. Distribution of the Boreal Low Zone .................................................. 1-2 Figure 2-1. Structure of the YBEC system of ecological classification ...................... 1-8 Figure 2-2. Example of coding format ............................................................... 1-9 Figure 3-1. Flow chart outlining the procedure for identifying ecosites ..................1-17 Figure 3-2. A hypothetical edatopic grid ..........................................................1-21 Figure 3-3. An example of a landscape profile diagram ...................................... 1-28 Figure 3-4. An example of a soil profile diagram ............................................... 1-30 Figure 4-1. Bioclimate Zones of Yukon ............................................................. 1-35 Figure 6-1. Map of preliminary subzones of the Boreal Low Zone ......................... 1-48 List of tables Table 2-1. Letter characters used in vegetation association codes ........................1-12 Table 2-2. Numeric characters used in vegetation association codes ....................1-13 Table 3-1. Site and soil features that are important in site identification ................1-19 Table 3-2. Classification of actual soil moisture regimes .................................... 1-24 Table 3-3. An example of a vegetation table ................................................... 1-25 Table 3-4. Abundance symbols used in vegetation tables.................................. 1-26 Table 3-5. Example of ecosite identification table ............................................ 1-27 Table 3-6. Definition of environmental condition fields ......................................1-31 Table 4-1. Overview of Yukon Bioclimatic Zones .............................................. 1-36 Table 4-2. Selected annual and derived climate variables (1971–2000) by Bioclimate Zone ...................................................................... 1-38 Table 6-1. Selected annual and derived climate variables (1971–2000) by Boreal Low Subzone ................................................................ 1-49 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This guide is the result of the efforts of many individuals: those who had a vision of an ecological framework for use in Yukon; those who collected the data on which the guide is based; and those who helped with various aspects of the guide conceptualization, ecological