SOIL The north

1. SOILThe north By Joon Park, Drew pettit, Atcha Totachawattana

2. The north • Tundra soils cover Nunavut and some parts of Nor thwest Territories • Wet-climate soils cover Northwest Territories • Complex soils of mountain areas cover Yukon Territories. • There are three types of soils in the north: Crysolic, Brunisolic and Regosolic

3. Cryosolic • Covers much of the northern Third of Canada • Located in arctic forest area, in parts of boreal forest and in some alpine areas on the northern mountain regions. • Patterned as nets, circles, polygons and earth hummocks • Frozen subsoil does not allow water to drain downward, so the water can be saved

4. Cryosolic • Stores lots of organic matter by frost action or cryoturbation • Has permafrost in 1~2m of the surface • Strongly cryoturbation within the active layer causes 2m of permafrost sometimes • A mean temperature below 0˚C • Divides into three group

5. Cryosolic The three groups of cryosolic order

6. Diagrammatic horizon pattern of some groups of Crysolic order

7. Brunisolic • Occurs mainly under forest Only little part of north • Occurs a wide range of climatic and vegetative environments such as Boreal, Tundra and many other regions • particularly in the drier regions such as northern Saskatchewan • Has brown color Bm or btj horizons

8. Brunisolic • The lack of the degrees or • horizon development • Specify Brunisolic from • the other orders • well to imperfectly drained • Doesn’t have permafrost • Divides into four groups • Melanic Brunisol • Eutic Brunisol • Sombric Brunisol • Dystric Bruniso

9. Diagrammatic horizon pattern of some groups of Brunisolic order

10. Regosolic • Covers the various climatic conditions range • Found under Arctic climate in Mackenzie delta, sub arctic in the Mackenzie, Yukon valleys and other regions in the south • Has the lack of structure development of pedogenic b • Has the youthfulness of the material

11. Regosolic • are generally rapidly to imperfectly drained • Has low base saturation • Has no vertical horizon or permafrost • Instability of the materials • Divide into two groups: Regosol and humid Regosol • has a thin topsoil layer • does not retain nutrients well • Incompletely eroded bedrock is found in large pieces in the soil.

12. Effects of soil • In tundra, the top meter of permafrost, Active layers, does not allow water to be drain download • The surface remains water-logged • Thin topsoil doesn’t retain nutrients well • It doesn’t allow to grow trees • The lack of vegetation cause the lack of wildlife and population