SOILSOILThe northThe north

By Joon Park, Drew pettit, Atcha Totachawattana

The northThe north

• Tundra soils cover Nunavut and some parts of Northwest 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

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

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

Cryosolic

Turbic Cryosol Static Cryosol Organic Cryosol

Soil Mineral Mineral Organic

Cryoturbation

Marked, usually patterned ground

None None

Permafrost

Within 2m of surface

Within 1m of surface

Within 1m of surface

The three groups of cryosolic order

Diagrammatic horizon pattern of some groups of Crysolic Diagrammatic horizon pattern of some groups of Crysolic orderorder

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

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

Diagrammatic horizon pattern of some groups of Diagrammatic horizon pattern of some groups of Brunisolic orderBrunisolic order

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

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.

Effects of soilEffects 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