The Dirt Hills structure: an ice-thrust feature in southern Saskatchewan, Canada

The Dirt Hills structure is expressed at the surface as a broad, arcuate moraine, 7.5 km wide, 120 m high, and 40 km long. The structure is composed mainly of bedrock and drift consisting of three slabs stacked to form a single block 215 m thick. The shear zones that bound the slabs are mainly in clays of the Bearpaw Formation. The Dirt Hills structure originated during the last deglaciation when the glacier, under compressive flow, readvanced up the Missouri Coteau escarpment and stacked the subglacial slabs of bedrock and drift. The subparallel, arcuate ice-thrust ridges are formed presumably by imbricate thrust faults originating from the uppermost shear zone.

Life cycle of the marsh grass, Scolochloa festucacea

This paper describes the life cycle of Scolochloa festucacea, a dominant species in potholes subjected to regular burning or mowing throughout the Drift Prairie and Missouri Coteau of the Northern Great Plains. Vernal growth is initiated at extremely low temperatures; some plants grow in water at the freezing point. Flowers develop in June if the pothole is inundated in the spring. Mature caryopses drop in July, but do not germinate until the next year. Tillers and new rhizomes are produced in August, followed by senescence in late September – early October.

BRYOPHYTE SUBFOSSILS OF A LATE-GLACIAL DEPOSIT FROM THE MISSOURI COTEAU, SASKATCHEWAN

Bryophyte and associated macro-subfossils were recovered from a kettle located in prairie southwest of Moose Jaw in the Missouri Coteau of southern Saskatchewan. The higher plants were discussed in an earlier paper.Three samples taken from the organic layer gave C14 datings ranging from 11,650 ± 150 to 10,270 ± 150 B.P.Sixteen species and one variety of Musci were recovered. Eleven of these were found in the lowermost zone at a depth of 510–450 cm. This zone was composed of bryophytes and higher plants characteristic of a modern Picea forest. Fifteen bryophyte taxa were recovered from the middle zone at a depth of 450–290 cm. The macro-subfossils in this zone are typical of a present-day Populus–Picea forest. No bryophytes were found in the upper layer, 290–280 cm characterized by higher plant macro-subfossils and pollen typical of a modern Picea forest.All bryophytes recovered belong to present-day taxa; however, many of the boreal species are not now found in the region as the southern margin of the boreal forest is now 200 miles to the north.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HOLOCENE PALEOECOLOGY OF WESTCENTRAL CANADA: A LATE-GLACIAL DEPOSIT FROM THE MISSOURI COTEAU

A buried deposit of limnic sediment was excavated from a site on the Missouri Coteau of Saskatchewan, within the Mixed Prairie section of the Great Plains. Carbon-14 determinations indicate that the section is late-glacial, possibly deposited during an interstadial terminated by the Condie (= Valders?) re-advance. On the basis of the records of about 60 taxa of Tracheophyta and a pollen diagram, the section is characterized by lower, middle, and upper plant assemblages. It is suggested that the lower and upper assemblages, distinguished mainly by a Picea – Shepherdia canadensis – Salix – Artemisia pollen spectrum, indicate the prevalence on mesic sites of a spruce forest. The middle assemblage, having an array of macrofossils and a few microfossils of temperate geographical affinity and a pollen spectrum suggesting relatively less spruce and (or) more herbaceous vegetation, is interpreted in terms of a mixed spruce–poplar forest on mesic sites with shrub and grassland communities on the more xeric habitats. This tripartite division of the section in terms of ecologically concordant plant assemblages suggests an amelioration of environment followed by a deterioration which was probably correlative with the Condie re-advance.