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A.177 | EcoArt 2002
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Name: A.177
Reference: EcoArt 2002
Description: This alliance includes semi-riparian or seep slope conifer forests in upper montane and subalpine areas in the Rocky Mountains. Snowpacks are typically deep and late-lying, and summers are cool. These forests occur in landscape positions where snowmelt moisture creates shallow water tables or seeps for a portion of the growing season. Sites include lower and middle slopes, stream terraces, benches, narrow valleys, or seep slopes. Slope aspects vary, but are often northerly, and can be flat to moderately steep. Soils often have high organic matter content and gleying due to temporarily saturated conditions. These conifer forests are characterized by the codominance of ~Abies lasiocarpa$ and ~Picea engelmannii$ in a moderate to dense tree canopy, but ~Pinus contorta$ can be dominant on some sites. Other conifers can occur. In the northern Rockies, stands typically have a well-developed shrub layer that is dominated by ~Alnus viridis ssp. sinuata$, with lesser amounts of ~Vaccinium$ spp. or ~Xerophyllum tenax$. The herbaceous layer is not lush, and the most constant species are ~Orthilia secunda$ and ~Arnica cordifolia$. In the southern Rockies, these forests do not have a significant layer of shrubs. Sparse cover of ~Salix drummondiana, Lonicera involucrata$, and ~Ribes$ species may be present, and at high elevations the dwarf-shrub ~Vaccinium myrtillus$ occasionally is present. The herbaceous layer is a diverse mixture of mesophytic forbs and is often well over 80% in cover. Important species include ~Cardamine cordifolia, Caltha leptosepala, Ligusticum porteri, Mertensia ciliata, Mitella pentandra, Oxypolis fendleri$, and~Senecio triangularis$. Diagnostic characteristics of these forests are that average tree canopy cover is greater than 60%, with ~Abies lasiocarpa$ being the predominant conifer in the tree-regeneration layer, and that they occur on sites less consistently saturated than forests in the similar seasonally flooded alliance. 
Accession Code: VB.CC.1506.A177
Plot-observations of this Community Concept: 0
      Party Perspective according to: NatureServe (organization)
Perspective from: 26-Nov-1997 to: 17-Mar-2005
     
  • status: accepted
  • Community's Parent: I.A.8.N.e
  • This Community's Level: Alliance
  • This Community's Children: [none]
Names:   Scientific: ABIES LASIOCARPA TEMPORARILY FLOODED FOREST ALLIANCE
  Code: A.177
  Common: Subalpine Fir Temporarily Flooded Forest Alliance
(convergence) and Synonyms:
(undetermined) Abies lasiocarpa Temporarily Flooded Forest Alliance