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8 . DESCRIPTION OF SOILS<br />
8 .1 . Organic Soils<br />
8 .1.1 . Peat Materials<br />
In the Mackenzie River area organic soils are associated with two<br />
peatland types : fens and bogs . A further subdivision of these peatlands<br />
was worked out by Tarnocai (1970) and Lavkulich (1972) . The<br />
peat materials constituting these two peatlands show differences in<br />
their botanical origin, physical and chemical characteristics and ice<br />
content .<br />
The following peat materials were identified during the<br />
study :<br />
A .<br />
Forest Peat<br />
This type of peat material usually develops on slightly better<br />
drained sites of transitional bogs and well to<br />
imperfectly drained bogs<br />
(Tarnocai, 1970) . This peat is derived primarily from black spruce<br />
feathermoss-Ledum , black spruce-Cladonia-Ledum , and black sprucetamarack-Carex<br />
types of vegetation .<br />
The forest peat is usually<br />
moderately decomposed (mesic), has a very dark brown to dark reddishbrown<br />
matrix, has an amorphous to very fine-fibered structure and may<br />
have a somewhat layered macro-structure .<br />
The material is non-sticky<br />
to slightly sticky and is<br />
interspersed with a random distribution of<br />
coarse to medium-sized woody fragments or particles of black spruce,<br />
tamarack and Ledum or other ericaceous shrubs,<br />
roots, stems and<br />
needles or leaves . The moss component is also important and is<br />
derived from the feathermoss group (Ptilium crista-castrensis ,<br />
Dicranum rugosum , Pleurozium shrebery , and Hylocomium s plendens ) .<br />
On the dryer, perennially frozen peatland types', lichens (Cladonia sp .)<br />
become dominant and the resultant peat material is dark brown to black
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