Climate Change - Spongy Lake
Introduction:
This session introduces the student to a unique type of ecosystem - a floating wetland
system exemplified in the Kitchener-Waterloo area by Spongy Lake. This Regional
Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area is about 11 kilometers west of the campus. The
Objectives. You should understand succession in a wetland, and understand the links
between surface wetlands and groundwater recharge. Understand how vegetation
history has been affected by climate change in this area, and how climate fluctuation is
changing this area now.
Introductory Walk:
The history of the wetland.
Wetland successional dynamics.
What is peat? How is it preserved?
What can be deduced from a transect across the wetland?
What can be deduced from a core through the peat?
Why is the system relatively intact?
What species are characteristic of acid wetlands? Why are they rare in the
Region of Waterloo?
What are/have been the threats to this wetland?
Wetland Classification: This lists only wetland types seen at Spongy Lake. For
others, see the publication below (Anon., 1987).
Peat Margin Swamp
-
water at or above surface
dogwoods, willows, alder
(This is called a "lagg" in European terminology)
Floating Fen/
Horizontal Fen
-
less acid than bog, more than marsh, etc.
ground water seeps through the peat
predominance of sedges, grasses, other vascular plants
trees or shrubs dominant (e.g. Tamarack) in many fens
Marsh
-
water level above soil surface
Herbaceous vegetation (e.g. grasses, sedges, cattails,
bullrushes)
Floating Bog
and Fen
-
develops on open water, often in a sheltered depression
microclimatically cool (at least for southern Ontario)
poor drainage; little or no water movement
-
acid loving (acidophile) plants including sphagnum moss and
ericaceous (Heath family) shrubs
Questions:
1.
Why is much of the Spongy Lake ESPA classified as a wetland? Define a
wetland.
2.
What are the main differences between a bog, a swamp, a fen, and a marsh?
3.
Sketch a transect across the wetland using the drawings overleaf as a model
showing the major vegetation zones seen in the field. What historical processes
and environmental factors account for the limited distribution of individual
species? Your transect should illustrate what you saw, not what is on page 39!
4.
What species interactions can be observed in and around the pitcher plant
(Sarracenia purpurea L.)?
5.
How have recent droughts affected this system? What evidence would you
assemble to show if these are just infrequent random events, or art of climate
change, or both?
6.
What effect are the visits by students having on the structure and ecology of the
wetland? Why? What could be done to change matters?
7.
What other activities of people are affecting this wetland?
8.
Is Spongy Lake useful? Why?/Why not? Does it matter?
9.
Name four uses of peat.
10. What happens to the water in the Spongy Lake wetland? (From where does it
come, and to where does it go?). How might climate change affect the hydrology
of the area around and beneath Spongy Lake?
Required Reading:
Smith and Smith, Elements of Ecology Ch. 29 (5th Ed’n.) OR Ch. 25 (6th Ed’n.).
This lab relates primarily to the following classes:
Limiting factors
Climate Change
How materials cycle
Succession
Layers
Interactions
Reference:
Anon. 1987. The Canadian Wetland Classification System. National Working
Group, Canada Committee on Ecological Land Classification, Provisional Edition.
Ecological Land Classification Series, No. 21, Lands Conservation Branch, Canadian
Wildlife Service, Environment Canada.
Dempster, A., Ellis, P. Wright, B., Stone, M., and Price, J. 2006. Hydrogeological
evaluation of a southern Ontario kettle-hole peatland and its linage to a regional
aquifer. Wetlands 26 (1): 49–56 (This can be located on line through Web of
Science at the UW library website).
Jackson, J. Baden Hills – Spongy Lake: A Case Study in Resource Management
(UWP1150)
Moore, P.D. 2002. The future of cool temperate bogs. Environmental Conservation
29 (1): 3–20 (This can be located on line through Web of Science at the UW library
website).
DO NOT copy the above to your lab report. Make a transect based on your ACTUAL
OBSERVATIONS!