Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
rotting logs on the ground. Over time, this forest reaches a steady state, in which composition and age structure
change little over time.
Although this description applies to the classic old-growth New England/ Acadian Forest type, once com-
mon to much of Maritime Canada and northern Maine, the situation on the ground is often different. Dominant
species or species associations vary, depending on local climatic or soil conditions and history of exploitation.
In the moist coastal climates of Nova Scotia and southeastern New Brunswick, for example, red spruce occurs
with early-successional species such as black spruce, red maple, trembling aspen, and white birch. These mari-
time forests, like those found in the adjacent New England states, were probably once dominated by red
spruce.
The Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia has a boreal coastal forest, dominated by early successional forest types
as a result of its long history of human occupation and fire disturbance. In this windswept region, white spruce
is the dominant conifer species, since it is tolerant of salt spray. The stunted dense forest typical of this region
has a mixture of conifers, including white and black spruce and balsam fir, with a few red maple and white
birch mixed in. A more diverse and robust mixed-wood forest—the Acadian-boreal coastal type—occurs in
the protected coves along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, as well as along the entire coastline of the Bay of
Fundy and Northumberland Strait. The coastal region surrounding the highlands of northern Cape Breton pro-
duces a unique boreal transition forest in which long-lived yellow birch occupies the upper story, and short-
lived but shade-tolerant balsam fir makes up the understory.
Boreal forests occur at higher elevations of the Maritimes Highlands, namely in the Cape Breton Highlands
and in the northwestern corner of New Brunswick. Being surrounded on three sides by the ocean, the Cape
Breton Highlands have a more maritime climate and are dominated by balsam fir, which is less susceptible to
fire but falls victim to spruce budworm infestations and massive blowdowns on a sixty-to-eighty-year cycle.
Other minor components of this forest include white birch, American mountain ash, red maple, white spruce,
and black spruce.
RED SPRUCE
On lower elevations and in the inaccessible river canyons of the highlands, it is still possible to find a
mixed, shade-tolerant deciduous forest of sugar maple and yellow birch, which are among the last vestiges of
old-growth forest not only in Nova Scotia but also in northeastern North America. They represent rare ex-
amples of a virgin ecosystem, largely unaffected by the depredations of human activity over the four centuries
since the settlement of the region.
