Taiga Shield

The Taiga Shield is an ecozone which stretches across Canada's subarctic region. Some regions exhibit exposed Precambrian bedrock of the Canadian Shield, the oldest of the world's geological formations.Cite web
url=http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/vignettes/Terrestrial/ts/default.cfm
title=Overview
work=Taiga Shield Ecozone
publisher=Environment Canada
accessdate=2008-02-02] The world's oldest rocks, dating to four billion years, are found in the Taiga Shield north of Great Slave Lake.Cite web
url=http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/vignettes/Terrestrial/ts/land.cfm
title=Landforms and Climate of the Taiga Shield Ecozone
work=Taiga Shield Ecozone
publisher=Environment Canada
accessdate=2008-02-02]

Geography

The ecozone covers almost all of the eastern area of the Northwest Territories, a tiny corner of northeastern Alberta, a narrow strip of all northern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba, as well as all some parts of southern Nunavut. Here, it is interrupted by Hudson Bay, where it abuts with the marine ecozone of the Arctic Archipelago Marine, and resumes on the eastern shores of Hudson Bay on the coast of Quebec, where it continues in a consistently-wide strip towards the ocean, encompassing all but a small portion of Labrador. Is is one of the largest ecozones in Canada, covering 1.3 million square kilometres.

Terrain is typically flat or rolling hillsCite web
url=http://canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/ecozones/taigashield/taigashield.htm
title=Taiga Shield
work=Canada's Ecozones, Canadian Biodiversity project
last=Bernhardt
first=Torsten
publisher=McGill University, Redpath Museum
accessdate=2008-02-02] with thousands of depressions carved by glacial retreat now infilled, forming lakes, ponds, wetlands and other water features. Long eskers and uplands are also common.Cite web
url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/environment/taiga_shield.html
title=Taiga Shield Ecozone
last=Bell
first=Trevor
publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland
date=2002
accessdate=2008-02-02]

ettlements

Primarily wilderness, the Taiga Shield is sparsely populated, with approximately 340,000 inhabitants, over 60% of which is First Nations.Cite web
url=http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/vignettes/Terrestrial/ts/human.cfm
title=Human Activities in the Taiga Shield Ecozone
work=Taiga Shield Ecozone
publisher=Environment Canada
accessdate=2008-02-02] Most settled areas developed around mining or hydroelectric activity, for example in Yellowknife and Uranium City in the west and Labrador City in the east, but are isolated from other communities. Mineral extraction is the most important economic activity, with iron being mined in Quebec and Labrador, uranium in Saskatchewan, and gold and more recently diamonds in the Northwest Territories.

Climate

This subarctic zone experiences cool summers that are short, with at least 24 hours of full daylight a year in its most northern reaches, and winters that are extremely cold and long, with at least one 24-hour period of complete darkness. Precipitation ranges from 250 to 500 mm (10-20 in.) annually throughout the zone, except in Labrador which may receive up to 800 mm (31 in.) along its coast, and typically increases from west to east.

The shallow soils remain damp, even soggy, year-round, and regularly freeze and thaw without drainage. This leads to shifting soil that randomly tilts growing trees, which has been likened to a "drunken forest".Cite web
url=http://www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/vignettes/Terrestrial/ts/plants.cfm
title=Plants of the Taiga Shield Ecozone
work=Taiga Shield Ecozone
publisher=Environment Canada
accessdate=2008-02-02]

References