[NatureNS] Clarification of "Northumberland Coastal Plain species"

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:28:36 -0400
From: David Patriquin <patriqui@DAL.CA>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca, Mary Macaulay <marymacaulay@hotmail.com>
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I had figured Mary was  using "Northumberland Coastal Plain" in the  
context it is used by Parks Canada & others, not in reference to the  
"Coastal Plain Flora", which she has confirmed (below, as posted to  
NatureNS)

The term "Northumberland Coastal Plain" applies to a physiographic  
unit in Ag Canada's Ecoregions and Ecodistricts system,  see   
Ecoregions and Ecodistricts of Nova Scotia (Webb and Marshall, 2003):  
"The Atlantic Maritime Ecozone covers 210 507 km2 and includes all of  
New Brunswick , Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. It also covers  
Iles-de-Ia-Madeleine and the part of Quebec extending southwesterly  
from the Gaspe Peninsula through the Appalachian complex of eastern  
Quebec to the U.S. border south of Sherbrooke....The ecozone is  
dominated by the interior Appalachian Upland and the Northumberland  
Coastal Plain physiographic units. The uplands are composed of  
granite, gneiss, and other hard, crystalline rocks. This upland  
terrain is covered by glacial till. Humo-Ferric Podzols are the  
dominant soils. In the coastal lowland areas, Luvisolic and Podzolic  
soils have formed on surficial materials derived from the underlying  
sedimentary bedrock (e.g., sandstone, shale, and limestone)."

I think the term has no intended phytogeographic relationship to the  
Atlantic Coastal Plain flora, commonly referred to in NS as our  
"Coastal Plain Flora", or "Nova Scotias Coastal Plain Flora" .  
(However there is some overlap in regard to disjunct distributions,  
see Majka et al. 2009 ZooKeys 22:347 ff)

The website at http://www.speciesatrisk.ca/coastalplainflora/ gives a  
list of Nova Scotia's Atlantic coastal plain plant species at risk,  
which are mostly confined to SW Nova Scotia, and a complete list which  
includes some species that have spread well beyond SW Nova Scotia.

The introductory section to The Flora of N.S.: Part 2 The Dicotyledons  
by Roland & Smith* in which they talk about the floral elements in  
Nova Scotia's flora still seems to be the best available overview of  
the origins of our flora; it includes a lengthy discussion of "THE  
SOUTHWESTERN FLORA".  (It would be nice if this whole section (pp  
279-311) were freely available on the NSIS website, also if it was  
updated - anyone interested?!!!)

*Proceedings of the N.S. Institute of Science 26(4): 278-746, 1969,  
also available as The Flora Of Nova Scotia by Roland and Smith 1983,  
published by The N.S. Museum



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