Marsh Gases in Muskrat Houses in Winter

Abstract

Houses in eight different marshes were sampled during the winter. Three of these marshes, located in the Carlos Avery Game Refuge west of Forest Lake, Minnesota, are in an area predominantly of peat soil with an interspersion of small islands of Merrimac loamy fine sand (Smith, Nesom, and Roth, 1918). The vegetation was predominantly cat-tail (Typha latifolia). Other emergent vegetation included rice-cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides), sedges (Carex spp.), cane (Phragmites maxima), bulrush (Scirpus acutus), and wild rice (Zizania aquatica). Aquatic vegetation included pondweeds (Potamogeton berchtoldi, P. zosteriformis, P. natans, P. pectinatus), coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum), star-duckweed (Lemna trisulca), and water moss (Drepanocladus sp.). The other five areas, all in Ramsey County, may be characterized briefly as follows: (1) The southwest bay of Lake Owasso in Rose Township is a peat soil with underlying admixtures of silt and clay (Smith and Kirk, 1916). Again the most abundant vegetation was cat-tail, although sedges, smartweeds (Polygonum spp.), rushes (Eleocharis spp.), and duck-potato (Sagittaria latifolia) were also found. Aquatic vegetation included sago pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus), yellow water-lily (Nuphar variegatum), and coontail. (2) An extensive marsh in White Bear Township near the junction of U.S. Highway 61 and County Road D had similar soils and vegetation. (3) A small marsh supporting cat-tails north of New Brighton in Mounds View Township lies in a Hinckley loamy fine sand. (4) A marsh on Snelling Avenue in Rose Township had Merrimac loamy fine sands and Miami loams and vegetation that was chiefly river bulrush (Scirpus fluviatilis). (5) Another area on County Road C in Rose Township had similar soils and vegetation.