Soil in the Taiga Shield
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Typically, in most cases, short growing seasons with very thin layers and acidic soils including permafrost are just two of the soil based problems which majority of plants located in the Taiga Shield face. Generally speaking, taiga soils in the Taiga Shield young and poor in major nutrients. They are often called fragile. As an example, the soils lack the deep and organically rich soils found in temperate forests such as the famous parks in Canada including Mount Revelstoke National Park. Climate and vegetation are both equally major factors when talking about the poor soil quality. Hence, soils are not that sufficient when comparing this soil to others.
Trees including coniferous trees or commonly referred as evergreens are involved for primary vegetation in the Taiga Shield as they rarely "shed" their needles and definitely lack organic material such as the shallow layer of humus. (Located near roots) The lack of humus results in the topsoil having a grey colour. However, most of all the needles that do fall throughout the year, require an extensively lengthy time to decompose and thus the soils in the Taiga Shield take a longer time to form making it a bad competitor with other ecozone soils.
This soil profile to the right displays a very shallow humus layer as afore-explaines (O horizon) >>>
Continuing with the poor quality of soil, the harsh winter climate, in addition, creates a layer of permafrost in various regions throughout the Taiga Shield. Moreover, the water coming from the precipitation and melting snow in warmer seasons is obviously unable to peek through the hardened frozen layer of soil. Hence, the taiga ground remains as a soft and damp area in general. Anyway, other areas that lack a solid layer of permafrost make up for it with a layer of solid bedrock which was historically formed by ancient tectonic plate movement occurring near the area. This was when the North American plate was in action, over a lapse of 4 billion years. Bedrock is a layer of dense rock what acts in a similar manner to permafrost as both stop the process of agriculture. All in all, the lack of humus within the soil layers combined with high acidity and leaching effects of acid make these weird wet-climate soils infertile and unsuitable for agricultural land.
This information applies to most of the shield. However, some areas remain with "healthy soil" with sufficient nutrients. Vegetation in the shield is not a problem, yet, soil in the Taiga Shield takes decades to come back once damaged.
Trees including coniferous trees or commonly referred as evergreens are involved for primary vegetation in the Taiga Shield as they rarely "shed" their needles and definitely lack organic material such as the shallow layer of humus. (Located near roots) The lack of humus results in the topsoil having a grey colour. However, most of all the needles that do fall throughout the year, require an extensively lengthy time to decompose and thus the soils in the Taiga Shield take a longer time to form making it a bad competitor with other ecozone soils.
This soil profile to the right displays a very shallow humus layer as afore-explaines (O horizon) >>>
Continuing with the poor quality of soil, the harsh winter climate, in addition, creates a layer of permafrost in various regions throughout the Taiga Shield. Moreover, the water coming from the precipitation and melting snow in warmer seasons is obviously unable to peek through the hardened frozen layer of soil. Hence, the taiga ground remains as a soft and damp area in general. Anyway, other areas that lack a solid layer of permafrost make up for it with a layer of solid bedrock which was historically formed by ancient tectonic plate movement occurring near the area. This was when the North American plate was in action, over a lapse of 4 billion years. Bedrock is a layer of dense rock what acts in a similar manner to permafrost as both stop the process of agriculture. All in all, the lack of humus within the soil layers combined with high acidity and leaching effects of acid make these weird wet-climate soils infertile and unsuitable for agricultural land.
This information applies to most of the shield. However, some areas remain with "healthy soil" with sufficient nutrients. Vegetation in the shield is not a problem, yet, soil in the Taiga Shield takes decades to come back once damaged.