Bogs are typically identified as areas where the subsurface water is non-flowing (free standing) or stagnant. The nutrient regime is considered poor and the dominant tree specie is black spruce; with an understory of Labrador tea and reindeer lichen, etc. Fens have a much higher nutrient regime, and sub surface water is considered to be flowing but at a very slow rate. Tree species are both deciduous (trembling aspen, birch, popular, alder etc.) and coniferous (White spruce, larch, Hemlock, some black spruce etc.) with an understory of various grasses, bulrushes, and shrubs. It was very easy to distinguish the bogs from the fens based on the tree species. If it was all black spruce it was considered a bog, if one larch was found in the black spruce it was considered a poor fen and so on.
Fen
We worked in teams of three (2 soil scientists and 1 vegetation scientist). In each quadrant, we would dig one test pit and hand auger down to a max. depth of 1m in mineral soil and 2.5m in peat and then classify the soil. The soils were beautiful!!! We predominantly encountered gleysols and luvisols. Near my last day, Bob and I found a brunisol. Finding this was one of the highlights of that day. I especially love the prominent Ae horizons distinguished by their almost white appearance. I found the transitional layers within some of our soil profiles to be quite interesting (the difference in textures as apposed to the color). I would often question Bob on his distinguishing between horizons, and he would always hand me the knife and tell me to probe at the side of the pit or just hand me the different material types from the horizons to be textured. I learned a great deal regarding soils from Bob and look forward to such an opportunity again.
Gleysol soil (Ah, Ahe, Ae, Bt, BCg, Cg)
Brunisol Soil (Ah, Ahe, Ae, Bm, Bt, Ck)
Organic/peat soils are very different from mineral soils but are easier to classify. They consist of three distinct layers (Of (fibric), Om (mesic), and Oh (humus)) before the mineral soil is contacted but do not have to have each layer to be classified as organic. Peat is the type of material which makes up the bog. If you were ever to walk in a bog on the peat it would be very soft and spongy. Peat is made up of dead and dying plant fibre and material. It is heavily comprised of roots and mosses or lichens. Fibric refers to the coarse material (roots, mosses, leaves etc.). Mesic is slightly more decomposed then fibric material and is darker in color and Humus is highly decomposed plant material, which has virtually turned into soil. Organic soil horizons follow the same sequence of decomposition that your household compost would go through. We found the peat horizons to be quite thick (good insulator). In fact, they were so thick that the ground was frozen approximately 2-6'' thick, about one foot below the surface. It was hard to stay awake in the hot sun when digging these profiles because the ground was so soft that when you would sit down you would virtually want to fall asleep. Such was the case with Bob.
Bob fast asleep......
Organic Profile (the water in the hole is freezing)
Top left: mineral soil, Top right: Of fibric layer
Middle: Oh humus layer, Bottom: Om mesic layer
Argos were the only practical mode of transportation while conducting these site assessments due to their flotation ability. A quad would have been lost deep in the bog or we would have spent most of our time digging it out of soft areas. In this picture, Bob and I are positioned in the middle of a poor fen. This particular spot was very cool but extremely dangerous. Notice the grass we are parked in the middle of; it is actually a grass blanket of peat over top of a very deep wetland. When we first drove onto it, a title wave of vegetation rippled in front of us; the same way a pond of water would if you were to drive into it. After dropping Greg (our veg guy) off on solid ground, I began to venture out like I had previously done on another one, when I fell through. Needless to say, we were doing this assessment out of the back of our Argo. If you look closely in my hand, I am holding a dutch hand auger used to bring soil cores up to the surface at 20cm intervals. The total length you see me holding is approximately 2.8m. I had augured down into this blanket of vegetation one foot above the handle and was still in the Om layer. I hadn't even come to the Oh layer, let alone the mineral layer, and apparently they want to build a road through here..... I don't think so! Not unless they want to lose their cat or have their operators join the bog people .
