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Please send me the following answers:
- How does the Summit Bog receive its water? What is the scientific name of this type of wetland?
- What type of Bog is this?
- Based on research records the Bog contains peat to what depth?
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History
Summit Bog is 12.7 hectares in size and is part of 38 hectare are designated as environmentally significant.
It was acquired in 1965 by the Spencer Cree Conservation Authority, the forerunner of the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority.
Prior to public acquisition of Summit Bog, water was withdraw from its western portion, and parts of the property were used as pasture.
Even with this activity , the site remains in good condition.
It is believed the Summit Bog was created between 12,000 and 18,000 years ago when a massive block of ice broke off a glacier and melted, leaving a deep hole called a “kettle”, and forming a small lake.
Leaves, stems, and pollen that fell into the kettle pond eventually sank at the bottom, creating layers of peat. As the lake filled with peat over 9,200 years, it changed from open water to a bog.
For its first several thousand years, balsam fir, spruce, and pine trees were abundant.
By AD 30 there were beech-oak forests in which sweet chestnut and sweet gum were common.
Today flat, wet beds of peat support black spruce, tamarack and black adder.
Natural Significance
Although many bogs of this nature exist in Norther Ontario, they are rare in Southern Ontario.
Summit is the only bog in the Hamilton-Wentworth Region.
Plants that are representative of Arctic muskeg vegetation flourish here.
Pitcher plants, sundews, cottongrass, Labrador tea, buckbean, and others grow in the bog, but almost nowhere else in Hamilton-Wentworth.
With these unusual plants come insect that depend on them.
One example is the bog copper butterfly that feeds on cranberry leaves when it is a caterpillar.
Summit Bog is the only place this little butterfly can be found in the region.
An even more significant find is an extremely rare wasp from the family Liopteridae, which has been indentified only at this site and in Virginia.
Physical Features
A bog is a wetland, usually containing an island of sphagnum moss floating atop a bed of peat.
Plants that prefer wet, acidic, and nutrient poor conditions grow in and around the area.
A shallow “moat” around the perimeter contains acidic water which is low in nutrients.
The surface of the the bog is almost completely covered with vegetation. The interlacing roots and underground network of stems from this vegetation are referred to as the mat.
Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton have worked on the ecological history of the Summit Bog.
Types of bog
Bog habitats may develop in various situations, depending on the climate and topography. In the 19th century it was thought that the bog itself somehow 'attracted' the rain that sustained it.
The main types are:
Valley bog
These develop in gently sloping valleys or hollows. A layer of peat fills the deepest part of the valley, and a Stream may run through the surface of the bog. Valley bogs may develop in relatively dry and warm climates, but because they rely on ground or surface water, they only occur on acidic substrates.
Raised bog
These develop from a lake or flat marshy area, over either non-acidic or acidic substrates. Over centuries there is a progression from open lake, to marsh, then fen (or on acidic substrates, valley bog) and carr, as silt or peat fill the lake. Eventually peat builds up to a level where the land surface is too flat for ground or surface water to reach the centre of the wetland. This part therefore becomes wholly rain-fed (Ombrotrophic), and the resulting acidic conditions allow the development of bog (even if the substrate is non-acidic). The bog continues to form peat, and over time a shallow dome of bog peat develops: a raised bog. The dome is typically a few metres high in the centre, and is often surrounded by strips of fen or other wetland vegetation at the edges or along streamsides, where ground water can percolate into the wetland.
Blanket bog
In cool climates with consistently high rainfall, the ground surface may remain waterlogged for much of the time, providing conditions for the development of bog vegetation. In these circumstances bog develops as a layer "blanketing" much of the land, including hilltops and slopes. Although blanket bog is more common on acidic substrates, under some conditions it may also develop on neutral or even alkaline ones, if abundant acidic rainwater predominates over the ground water. Blanket bog cannot occur in drier or warmer climates, because under those conditions hilltops and sloping ground dry out too often for peat to form – in intermediate climates blanket bog may be limited to areas which are shaded from direct sunshine. In periglacial climates a Patterned vegetation form of blanket bog may occur, known as String bog.
Quaking bog
Quaking bog or schwingmoor is a form of bog occurring in wetter parts of valley bogs and raised bogs, and sometimes around the edges of acidic lakes where bog is beginning to form. The bog vegetation forms a mat half a metre or so thick, floating over water or very wet peat. Walking on this surface causes it to move – larger movements may cause visible ripples of the surface, or they may even make trees sway.
Cataract Bog
A Cataract bog is a rare ecological community formed where a permanent stream flows over a granite outcropping. The sheeting of water keeps the edges of the rock wet without eroding the soil, but in this precarious location no tree or large shrub can maintain a roothold. The result is a narrow, permanently wet, sunny habitat.
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