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Larter
and Nagy. 2001. The Distribution of Forage Types Among four Terrestrial
Habitats on Southern Banks Island. 20 pp.
ABSTRACT
Between
June 1993 and August 1997, we recorded the presence of various classes of
forage in wet sedge meadow, upland barren, hummock tundra, and stony
barren habitats in two areas on southern Banks Island in order to assess
the frequency occurrence and distribution of forages among these habitats.
We visited >1400 plots during the study.
We selected 10 classes of forage which were believed to represent
important components of the diets of muskoxen and Peary caribou on Banks
Island: sedge (mainly Carex spp.),
willow (Salix arctica), grass (Poaceae),
ericaceous shrub (mainly Cassiope
tetragona), lichen, legume (Astragalus
spp. and Oxytropis spp.), aven (Dryas
integrifolia), saxifrage (Saxifraga
spp.), horsetail (Equisetum spp.),
and other forbs.
Aven, lichen, and sedge were the most commonly found forages over
all habitats.
Sedge predominated in wet sedge meadows but horsetail, willow, and
aven were commonly found.
Upland barren (UB) and hummock tundra (HT) had a diversity of
forages with aven, lichen, and sedge being the most common.
All other forages occurred in >20% of the plots in these
habitats except horsetail, which was absent.
Lichen was more commonly found in UB than HT, whereas aven and
willow were more commonly found in HT than UB.
Stony barren is the most sparsely vegetated habitat with lichen,
aven, saxifrage, and sedge being the most common forages.
There were some site differences (P<0.05) in percent frequency
occurrence of specific forages in habitats.
Variation in the topography and physical environment are likely the
cause of the specific differences, and represent natural variation found
within habitat types.
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