Abstract
Analyses of halophytic vegetation and saline soils adjacent to three different-aged impoundments were conducted on a study area in southeastern Alberta. Two impoundments had been constructed by Ducks Unlimited (Canada), and were 4 and 8 years old. The third was a small natural lake. Mesic prairie vegetation and soils were also sampled to secure comparative data. The establishment of artificial impoundments has raised the water table, permitting a rapid upward movement of soluble salts into the surface soils from lower levels in the glacial drift. Four distinct halophytic communities were recognized: a Hordeum community around all three impoundments, a Distichlis community around the older two, and Suaeda–Chenopodium and Salicornia communities around the oldest (the natural lake). It is believed that as salt concentrations increase the mesic prairie community is replaced by a Hordeum community which in turn is replaced by a Distichlis community. Evidence of Suaeda–Chenopodium and Salicornia communities supplanting the Distichlis community is not clear cut and edaphic factors other than salinity per se are involved.
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