Natural Regions And Subregions Of Alberta

This document presents the climatic, physiographic, vegetation, soil, wildlife and land use attributes that characterize each natural region and subregion. It has been organized into four parts: part one outlines national region and subregion concepts, part two describes methods used to generate climate statistics, part three presents a comparative analysis of selected climate statistics to facilitate comparison of natural regions and subregions, and part four presents detailed climatic, vegetation, soils and physiographic descriptions for six natural regions and twenty-one natural subregions currently recognized in Alberta.

An ecological classification system was developed for Northern Alberta through the analysis of vegetation, soil, site, and forest productivity information. The hierarchical classification system has three levels - ecosite, ecosite phase and plant community type. Thirty-eight ecosites are described with further detail provided by subdivision into ecosite and ecosite phase and plant community type. A soil type classification system that describes 17 soil types was also developed. Management interpretations were made for drought, excess moisture, soil rutting hazard, soil compaction hazard, puddling hazard, soil erosion hazard, frost heave hazard, soil temperature limitations, vegetation competition, and windthrow hazard. Colour photos and drawings for 87 common plants of northern Alberta are presented.

LandWise Inc. was contracted by the Integrated Resource Management Branch of Alberta Environment in October 2002, to assist in developing a method to extend the known range site and plant community information to all of southern Alberta except the Rocky Mountain Natural Region, including the Montane, Sub-Alpine and Alpine Natural Subregions. A map showing the aerial extent of each ecological range site was prepared by linking ecological range sites and their associated reference plant communities to soil and landscape information in the Agriculture Region of Alberta Soil Information Database (AGRASID. The resulting Geographic Information System (GIS) database was summarized so that the total area of each ecological range site and potential plant community within each SCA could be determined. Included are the links betwen AGRASID, reference plant communities and ecological range sites. The document also contains information on AGRASID and other information used for rule building, refinements of the map product, as well as specific enhancements to AGRASID for the purposes of this project.--Includes text from document.

Presenting a summary of the development in boreal forest management, this book provides a progressive vision for some of the world's northern forests. It includes a selection of chapters based on the research conducted by the Sustainable Forest Management Network across Canada. It includes a number of case histories.

Rangelands comprise between 40 and 50 percent of all U.S. land and serve the nation both as productive areas for wildlife, recreational use, and livestock grazing and as watersheds. The health and management of rangelands have been matters for scientific inquiry and public debate since the 1880s, when reports of widespread range degradation and livestock losses led to the first attempts to inventory and classify rangelands. Scientists are now questioning the utility of current methods of rangeland classification and inventory, as well as the data available to determine whether rangelands are being degraded. These experts, who are using the same methods and data, have come to different conclusions. This book examines the scientific basis of methods used by federal agencies to inventory, classify, and monitor rangelands; it assesses the success of these methods; and it recommends improvements. The book's findings and recommendations are of interest to the public; scientists; ranchers; and local, state, and federal policymakers.

This volume represents a first attempt at holistically classifying and mapping ecological regions across all three countries of the North American continent. A common analytical methodology is used to examine North American ecology at multiple scales, from large continental ecosystems to subdivisions of these that correlate more detailed physical and biological settings with human activities on two levels of successively smaller units. The volume begins with an overview of North America from an ecological perspective, concepts of ecological regionalization. This is followed by descriptions of the 15 broad ecological regions, including information on physical and biological setting and human activities. The final section presents case studies in applications of the ecological characterization methodology to environmental issues. The appendix includes a list of common and scientific names of selected species characteristic of the ecological regions.