Landscape ecosystem and cover types of the Reserve Area and adjacent lands of the Huron Mountain Club, Marquette County, Upper Michigan.

Abstract

Landscape ecosystem types were identified, classified, and mapped for the Reserve Area and adjacent lands (3,200 ha) of the Huron Mountain Club, Marquette County, Upper Michigan. Vegetative cover types were also mapped. Plot samples (438 total) were used to guide the classification of ecosystem and cover types and to aid in the description of the types. Fifty landscape ecosystem types were identified in the mapped area. Sugar maple, hemlock, and hemlock-northern hardwood ecosystems made up 21 of the types. Areas of exposed crystalline bedrock accounted six ecosystem types. Pine-oak and white pine-hemlock-hardwood forests were common in these areas. Nipissing beach landforms comprise six ecosystem types, the most extensive type covered by jack pine forest. Ten wetland ecosystem types were identified, ranging from graminoid marsh to black spruce swamp. The importance of direct and indirect influences of physiography (surface material depth and texture, slope steepness and position, distance to water, distance to ridge, watershed position, and wind and sun effects) to the development of landscape ecosystem and cover types was investigated through a statistical analysis of data obtained from the topographic map as well as the ecosystem type and cover type maps. Multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) of 584 sample points using cover type classes and the physiographic variables resulted in 56% correct classification for deep soil areas and 49% for shallow soil areas. Using the variables found significant (p $<$.10) in the MDA of cover types, an MDA of ecosystem types resulted in 63% correct classification for deep soil ecosystem types and 53% correct classification for shallow soil ecosystem types. Overall, the most important variables were depth of soil, slope steepness, and solar radiation effects. Additionally, three wind effects variables, distance to surface water, and distance to ridge were significant in the MDAs of deep-soil cover types and ecosystem types, and slope position was significant in the MDAs of shallow-soil cover types and ecosystem types.