DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Picea mariana | Black Spruce 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Black spruce is a wide-ranging and abundant tree.  It is distributed
transcontinentally across northern North America.  It grows from
Newfoundland and northern Quebec, west across northern Canada to the
west coast of Alaska, south to central British Columbia, south and east
to central Minnesota, and east to Rhode Island and Massachusetts [41].
Black spruce occurs in isolated patches along the southern portion of
its range in southern Wisconsin, southern Michigan, Pennsylvania, and
New Jersey [65].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES23  Fir - spruce


STATES : 
     AK  CT  ME  MA  MI  MN  NH  NJ  NY  PA
     RI  VT  WI  AB  BC  LB  MB  NB  NF  NT
     NS  ON  PE  PQ  SK  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ACAD  APIS  DEWA  DENA  ISRO  LACL
     PIRO  SLBE  VOYA  WRST  YUCH


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K094  Conifer bog
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    13  Black spruce - tamarack
    16  Aspen
    18  Paper birch
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white cedar
    38  Tamarack
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
   107  White spruce
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   203  Balsam poplar
   204  Black spruce
   217  Aspen
   251  White spruce - aspen
   252  Paper birch
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Climax black spruce forests are widespread across boreal North America.
Six generalized climax types have been outlined [22].  These are:

 (1)  Black spruce-feather moss - These are well-stocked to dense spruce
stands with a well-developed carpet of feather mosses (Pleurozium
schreberi, Hylocomium splendens, Ptilium crista-castrensis).  This type
is most common at the southern and central portion of black spruce's
range.

 (2)  Black spruce-lichen - These are open woodlands with a
well-developed carpet of reindeer lichens (Cladina spp.).  This type
occurs along the northern portion of black spruce's range in the
forest-tundra transition.  It remains an open woodland due to the
unfavorable climate.

 (3)  Black spruce-dwarf shrub - These are closed black spruce stands
with a well-developed ericaceous dwarf shrub layer, and forest floor
dominated by mosses and reindeer lichens.  This type occurs in the
central and southern boreal forests.  

 (4)  Black spruce-sphagnum - this type is made up of open to closed
pure black spruce stands on organic or wet mineral soils with
well-developed ericaceous dwarf shrub cover and sphagnum mosses
(Sphagnum spp.) dominating the forest floor.  This type occurs
throughout the range of black spruce.

 (5)  Black spruce-speckled alder (Alnus rugosa) - These are pure or
mixed stands on areas where the watertable is near the surface during
the growing season.  Stands have well-developed tall shrub and
herbaceous layers.

 (6)  Black spruce-sedge - These are very open stands of stunted trees
on wet sites with the ground dominated by sedges and grasses and
well-developed moss layers (but little or no sphagnum mosses).  This
type is widely distributed througout boreal regions.

Published classifications listing black spruce as an indicator or
dominant part of the vegetation in community types (cts) or ecosystem
associations (eas) are presented below:

Area                        Classification     Authority

AK                          general veg. cts   Viereck & Dyrness 1980 
interior AK                 postfire cts       Foote 1983
MN: Boundary Waters
     Conoe Area             general veg. cts   Ohman & Ream 1971

AB                          general veg. cts   Moss 1955
w-c AB                      forest cts         Corns 1983
w-c AB                      forest eas         Corns & Annas 1986
BC: Prince Rupert Forest 
     Region, Interior
     Cedar-Hemlock Zone     general veg. eas   Haeussler & others 1984
    Prince Rupert Forest
     Region, Subboreal
     Spruce Zone            general veg. eas   Pojar & others 1984
ON                          forest eas         Jones & others 1983

Related categories for Species: Picea mariana | Black Spruce