KUCHLER TYPE
KUCHLER TYPE: Conifer bog



KUCHLER-TYPE-NUMBER : 
K094

PHYSIOGNOMY : 
Conifer bogs are dense to open, low to medium tall forests of needleleaf
evergreen or deciduous trees with a peat substrate.  Open stands have a
dense shrub layer [7,22].

Damman and French [7] described three physiognomic types of conifer
bogs:  1) dwarf-shrub bogs with scattered tamarack (Larix laricina) or
black spruce (Picea mariana) trees and a dwarf shrub layer dominated by
evergreen ericaceous shrubs, 2) tall-shrub thicket bogs dominated by
deciduous ericaceous shrubs, usually with a tree layer composed of black
spruce, tamarack, and red maple (Acer rubrum), and 3) forested bogs
dominated by black spruce with ericaceous dwarf shrubs.  Two additional
physiognomic types are nonforested [7].


OCCURRENCE : 
As defined by Kuchler [22], conifer bogs are included in the following
Society of American Foresters cover types:  black spruce (SAF 12,
particularly the black spruce/sphagnum [Sphagnum spp.] subtype), black
spruce-tamarack (SAF 13), tamarack (SAF 38), and northern white-cedar
(Thuja occidentalis) (SAF 37) [10,22].  The Committee on Nomenclature of
the Ecological Society of America defines a bog as that stage in
physiographic succession of an area in which the surface is entirely of
living sphagnum moss, with or without a tree layer [8].  Bogs are
distinct from swamps (forested wetlands with little or no peat
development), and marshes (wetlands with or without peat dominated by
graminoid vegetation).  Bogs either develop in depressions with bodies
of standing water (lake-filling processes), or are created by the
extension of existing peatlands (paludification) [8,11,17].

Peatlands are usually distinguished by hydrological characteristics.
The source and direction of flow of water determines the mineral
nutrient status of a peatland.  The classification system of Smith and
others [28] for Ontario distinguished bog from fen on the basis of
nutrient status.  Conifer bogs are dominated by black spruce and
tamarack, and tamarack-sedge fens are dominated by tamarack but with
some associated black spruce [28].  According to Johnston [20], "bog"
refers to peatlands that are ombrotrophic to very oligotrophic;
minerotrophic and less oligotrophic sites are called fens.  Bogs,
therefore, are flat to raised peatlands that receive only rainwater, and
fens are peatlands that are level, on slopes, or in depressions and
receive groundwater-carried nutrients [20].  Damman and French [7],
however, noted that since all peatlands include minerotrophic sites at
least at the margins, the use of minerotrophic versus ombrotrophic for
peatland classification at the landform level is not useful.  They
prefer to distinguish peatlands on the basis of the nature of the water
that controls development, and use the terms ombrogenous (controlled by
precipitation), topogenous (water accumulation in a basin, permanent
ground-water table), limnogenous (lake-fill, slow-moving streams), and
soligenous (on slopes supplied by minerotrophic seepage water).  Conifer
bog, as used by Kuchler, is inclusive of these types and will be used in
this write-up to refer to the abovementioned range of peatland types [7]
and including "bog" and "fen" sensu Johnston [20].
  
Conifer bogs occur from the Maritime Provinces of Canada through Quebec
and Ontario south through New England and the Great Lakes States.
Lake-filled conifer bogs are scattered extensively throughout Canada and
the northern United States as far south as New Jersey and Ohio.
Individual bogs in the United States are usually of small area, but
collectively the type covers an extensive area [21].  Conifer bogs
occurring in Itasca State Park, Minnesota, are mostly smaller than 2
acres (0.8 ha) [13].  In the northeastern United States, bogs are most
abundant in the northern hardwood forest and boreal forest regions [21].
Conifer bogs are extensive across northern Minnesota.  The peatlands of
the Glacial Lake Agassiz area of Minnesota are the largest unbroken
tracts of organic terrain in the northern United States, and were formed
largely through paludification [14].

STATES:

CT, MA, ME, MN, NJ, NH, NY, OH, PA, VT, WI, NB, NS, ON, PE, PQ


COMPILED BY AND DATE : 
Janet Sullivan, December 1994


LAST REVISED BY AND DATE : 
NO-ENTRY


AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION : 
Sullivan, Janet. 1994. Conifer bog. In: Remainder of Citation


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