Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
SUBSECTION VIII.2. Luce
DISCUSSION: The subsection consists of two sub-subsections, both with sandy soils and high lake-effect snowfall.
SUB-SUBSECTIONS: Seney (VIII.2.1) is a broad expanse of poorly drained outwash plain, deltas, and sand lake plain. Grand Marais (VIII.2.2) consists primarily of well-drained outwash, end moraine, and lake plain. (See figure 6.)
ELEVATION: 602 to 1,240 feet (183 to 378 m).
AREA: 3,427 square miles (8,910 sq km).
STATES: Michigan.
CLIMATE: Growing season ranges from 130 days on Lake Superior to less than 100 days in the interior (Eichenlaub et al. 1990). The center of the subsection is a frost pocket and has extreme minimum temperatures as cold as -46½F. Minimum temperatures along Lake Superior are as high as -30½F. Average annual precipitation is 32 to 34 inches. Average snowfall ranges from 180 inches along the ridges south of Lake Superior to 80 inches at the southern edge of the subsection.
BEDROCK GEOLOGY: An east-west-trending sandstone escarpment of Cambrian age is exposed in several waterfalls, including Tahquamenon Falls, Au Train Falls, Miner's Falls, and Laughing Whitefish Falls, and along the Lake Superior shoreline at Pictured Rock National Lakeshore (Dorr and Eschman 1984). Farther inland, there are local bedrock exposures, but most of the surface consists of either glaciofluvial or lacustrine deposits that are as thick as 200 feet (Vanlier 1963a). Farther inland, Ordovician sandstone and dolomite are the underlying bedrock (Reed and Daniels 1987).
LANDFORMS: See sub-subsections.
LAKES AND STREAMS: See sub-subsections.
SOILS: Soils are sands, loamy sands, and in Sub-subsection VIII.2.1, primarily organic soils. See sub-subsections.
PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION: See sub-subsections.
NATURAL DISTURBANCE: See sub-subsections.
PRESENT VEGETATION AND LAND USE: See sub-subsections.
RARE PLANT COMMUNITIES: See sub-subsections.
RARE PLANTS: See sub-subsections.
RARE ANIMALS: See sub-subsections.
NATURAL AREAS: See sub-subsections.
PUBLIC LAND MANAGERS: See sub-subsections.
CONSERVATION CONCERNS: See sub-subsections.
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