Manitoba Alvars

 Alvars are globally rare ecosystems that occur along the edges of the Canadian Shield in Canada. This ecosystem is characterized by sparse tree cover and thin soils over a limestone bedrock that makes it a harsher environment. Only drought and flood tolerant species can survive here which makes it a very interesting ecosystem to study for plants. I have had the pleasure of completing my masters research in the Interlake region of Manitoba studying the plants that live on alvars.

 Hoary Puccoon - Lithospermum canescens

 In the spring, flowers such as Lithospermum canescens and Cyprepedium parviflorum attract pollinators with bright yellow flowers. Later in the season when the spring flowers are finished, Gaillardia aristata speckles the field again with yellow-orange flowers.

Lesser Yellow Lady Slipper - Cyprepedium parviflorum

Blanketflower - Gaillardia aristata

  Often the first things to colonize an area of open rock are lichens and mosses. These are very common on alvars since ecological processes maintain the openness and allow them to thrive.

Granite Erratic With Moss and Lichens

 They grow on both rock and tree bark often covering most of the rock or trees surface as seen above and below. These organisms often grow quite slowly indicating that these habitats remain open for long periods of time.

Bur Oak With Lichens

 Unfortunately not all alvars remain pristine. Here you can see nicer green alvar vegetation fading into a field of encroaching Poa pratensis. This invasive grass is commonly found in pastures and since alvars are so barren grazing usually requires providing cattle with hay bails that introduce invasive species to the area.

Poa pratensis Encroaching On Alvar Vegetation

Even admist the disturbances of grazing many alvar species can still find small pockets where the soil is to thin to support invasives. Myosurus minimus is a rare species to find in Manitoba since it reaches it most northern tip of its range here. On the alvars in Manitoba, Myosurus minimus is restricted to lower lying depressions on bare limestone pavement with extremely thin soils.

Tiny Mousetail - Myosurus minimus

Narcisse Snake Dens, Manitoba

Smaller snake groups emerging out of cracks

Red-sided Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)

 So this entire blog entry will be a whole lot of pictures of garter snakes! That is exactly what you get if you visit Narcisse Snake Dens. This is the largest snake hibernacula in Canada! It is not  bio-diverse but the sheer numbers of snakes is unbelievable. I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list of places to visit (mostly if you actually like snakes).

Massive snake ball, Narcisse Snake Dens, MB

I am not surprised that snakes can suffocate in these things...

  The larger snake balls were definitely the largest I have ever seen in my life! These were over a foot deep and at least 3-4 feet wide. They are constantly moving and snakes are poking their heads out of the top and sides so that they can actually breathe.

Massive snake ball, Narcisse Snake Dens, MB

Massive snake ball, Narcisse Snake Dens, MB

 Somehow I managed to get a few shots of snakes on their own if they were emerging or on their way to the mating scene. 

Red-sided Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) coming out of a hole 

 Garter snakes aren't usually known for being climbers but they sure proved that they can. There were mating balls forming in many of the shrubs. Possibly this is due from snakes falling off higher rock faces down onto these shrubs but some males were seen climbing up to the balls so they could join in.

Red-sided Garter Snakes

 Not all the snakes were extremely active, although most were. A few were seen sitting in or near the cracks in the rock just catching some sun while all the other snakes slither over top of them.

Red-sided Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)

Red-sided Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)

This little guy looked tired... wonder why!

 Garter snake statue in town near the dens

  After a nice day out at the dens we had a lot of photos and were surprisingly tired considering the day didn't involve much walking. The snakes mostly just come to you because they are everywhere!

A good group of people to go out with

Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Manitoba

 A group of friends and I have been itching to get out of the city since the weather has been wonderful in Manitoba. So we planned on going camping as soon as Spruce Woods Provincial Park opened for the season. Unfortunately weather had other plans and the temperature dropped suddenly just for that weekend! A day trip out to the park was a nice compromise though and the weather was nice enough for that.

Ramalina sinensis

Teloschistes chryosophthalmus

Ramalina sinensis

While other people were looking for lichens and mammals/birds I definitely was keeping my ears open for that distinct slither. Expecting a garter snake and hoping for a hognose I really was shocked to find a young smooth green snake!

Smooth Green Snake (Opheodrys vernalis)

Spruce Woods is unlike any other area I have seen in Manitoba. The contrast between the flat prairies, rugged Canadian shield and flat alvar regions that I have been to is vast. Here the area is full of rolling hills of sand. Scattered spruce trees grow out of a mat of dwarf shrubs like juniper and bearberry. 

 Tumbleweed lichens such as Cetraria arenaria, were frequently found caught in grasses and other locations that they get stuck whenever they blow away. I imagine this happens frequently to disperse them since they really don't have much of an anchor to the substrate underneath.We even managed to find an unusual lichen, Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa growing on the sand dunes.

Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa

 The devils punch bowl was our first destination. Here we saw many birds including yellow-rumped warbler, flycatchers, sandpipers and a waterthrush.

Devils Punch Bowl, Spruce Woods Provincial Park

Devils Punch Bowl, Spruce Woods Provincial Park

The seeps around the punch bowl looked very interesting for plants but there unfortunately wasn't an easy way to get across that we had time to find.

Seep near the Devils Punch Bowl, Spruce Woods Provincial Park

 The larger dunes were very barren of vegetation compared to the hills below them.They had mostly Artemisia and tall grasses that will flower later in the summer.

Contrast between large dunes and smaller hills below

  These dunes involved a lot of races up and down them. I am not surprised that this area used to be used as a military training area as all. It was quite the workout!

Introduction to Manitoba Alvars

Habitat shot of an alvar in Manitoba

Alvars are a globally rare ecosystems characterized by thin soil and sparse tree cover over limestone bedrocks. These were first discovered in Sweden by Carl Linnaeus and were given the name alvar for their barren appearance.  The openness of alvars is maintained by ecological processes such as erosion, flooding, fire, drought, frost heaving and grazing. These dynamic ecosystems are home to many rare and unusual species which are adapted to these disturbances. Alvars are under threats from garbage dumping, off-road vehicle use, mining, over-grazing, development and road building.

Recently, alvars were first discovered in the Interlake region of Manitoba and the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Manitoba conservation formed the Manitoba Alvar Initiative in order to study and preserve these unique ecosystems. 

Map of confirmed alvar areas in Manitoba (Manitoba Alvar Initiative, 2012)

Work done by the Manitoba Alvar Initiative (2012) represents only a “first approximation of alvar types” in Manitoba and the authors recommend that a “quantitative data-based classification scheme be developed to refine the conservation status of alvar types, establish site-condition metrics, recommend compatible land-management activities and advance conservation activities”. 

Table of the various alvar types and parameters used to define them

 My current Masters project aims to build on previous work by completing a comprehensive vegetation survey in order to form a quantitative classification scheme that will verify the alvar types (grassland, wet grassland, jack pine savannah, oak savannah, spruce savannah, boreal shrubland, prairie shrubland, intermediate shrubland) proposed by the Manitoba Alvar Initiative (2012). Additional goals of the project are to make preliminary observations on how disturbances, such as fire and grazing, affect the various alvar types. 

This season, species diversity, abundance and environmental data were collected for 103 plots (10mX10m) from June till August.  Locations of rare species, such as Gastonyi’s Cliffbrake (Pellaea gastonyi) which only occurs on exposed limestone ridges and tabletops, were recorded. The information collected from plots will be used to separate alvars into alvar types allowing for species lists and mapping to be completed for each of the 20 sites on crown land. The completion of this project will give us a better understanding of a complex, dynamic and unusual ecosystem so that we can properly manage and conserve its biodiversity. 

Cliffbrake growing on exposed limestone ridge

Delta Marsh

 The drive from Winnipeg to Delta Beach is probably the flattest I have ever seen in this world. Patches of trees by the farmers houses or rows used to block wind from the farmlands are the only breaks in the horizon. Even these are few and pretty far between... BUT when you arrive at Delta Marsh the scenery changes from flat agricultural lands to gorgeous expanses of cattail marsh as far as the eye can see. 

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Volunteering at the Delta Marsh Banding Station was a great experience despite the weather being cold and cloudy most of the time. A lot of birds were using the marsh close to the edges (because the parts further out were still frozen) and scrubby forests in between giving a great view of many species. The lifers I got were ridiculously common species in Manitoba but I had actually had never seen a Yellow-headed Blackbird or White Pelican before!

Yellow-headed Blackbird

The cold weather also kept a lot of species which would normally have passed through in the area. It was great to see Rough-legged Hawks along the roadsides. These gorgeous birds are one of my favorites.