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1999 Canadian Transect

Figure 4a-y: Characteristic vegetation communities along a mesotopographic sequence in each of the five subzones of the Canadian Arctic.

Click on thumbnails below to enlarge photo.

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Dry Mesic Wet Snowbed Riparian
Subzone 1:
Cushion Forb
Figure 4a

a. Ridge top, lemming burrow, Amund Ringnes Island, <5% vegetation cover, dry graminoid barrens.
Figure 4b

b. Arctic hares on level plain, Ellesmere Island, moist cushion-forb tundra. Extra-zonal elevational Subzone 1.
Figure 4c

c. Amund Ringnes Island, 80- 100% vegetation cover, wet graminoid-moss tundra.
Figure 4d

d. Amund Ringnes Island, graminoid-cryptogam snowbed barrens.
Figure 4e

e. Amund Ringnes Island, 25% vegetation cover, riparian cushion forb-graminoid barrens.
Subzone 2:
Prostrate dwarf-shrub
Figure 4f

f. Resolute, Cornwallis Island, dry graminoid-cushion forb barren.
Figure 4g

g. Eureka, Ellesmere Island, moist prostrate dwarf-shrub rush community.

Figure 4h

h. Resolute, Cornwallis Island, wet Carex aquatilis prostrate dwarf-shrub.
Figure 4i

i. Resolute, Cornwallis Island, Dryas-Cassiope snowbed community.
Figure 4j

j. Resolute, Cornwallis Island, <10% cover, riparian graminoid rush, forb community.

Subzone 3:
Hemiprostrate dwarf-shrub
Figure 4k

k. Ellesmere Island, dry dwarf-shrub sedge barren.
Figure 4l

l. Central Victoria Island, moist dwarf-shrub sedge.
Figure 4m

m. East Wind Lake, Ellesmere Island, wet sedge dwarf-shrub.
Figure 4n

n. Ellesmere Island, Cassiope dwarf-shrub heath snowbed.
Figure 4o

o. Ellesmere Island, moss graminoid riparian meadow.
Subzone 4:
Erect dwarf-shrub
Figure 4p

p. Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, dry Dryas, cushion forb, sedge barren.
Figure 4q

q. Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, moist dwarf-shrub sedge with Salix lanata.

Figure 4r

r. Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, wet sedge-bryophyte community.
Figure 4s

s. Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, Cassiope-Dryas prostrate shrub cushion-mat snowbed.
Figure 4t

t. Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island, Salix lanata-Carex misandra riparian low-shrub sedge.
Subzone 5
Low-shrub
Figure 4u

u. Daring Lake, mainland Canada, dry lichen-shrub community.
Figure 4v

v. Daring Lake, mainland Canada, moist erect low-shrub sedge community.
Figure 4w

w. Daring Lake, mainland Canada, Eriophorum-Sphagnum tundra.
Figure 4x

x. Daring Lake, mainland Canada, lichen-heath snowbed.
Figure 4y

y. Daring Lake, mainland Canada, riparian shrubs up to 2m tall.



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