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Wetland Classification and Mapping of the Kenai Lowland, Alaska
Map Unit Descriptions Ecosystem: Relict Glacial Drainageway Map Unit: DW1-3; DW31
Extent: DW1-3: 90 wetland polygons; 859.6 ha; 0.61% of wetland area; 0.55% of wetland polygons. DW31: 3 wetland polygons; 6.7 ha; 0.00% of wetland area; 0.02% of wetland polygons. |
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 A segregated DW1-3 unit near Moose Point, south of Point Possession (polygon 6252).
A segregated DW1-3 unit southeast of the City of Kenai (polygon 901). |
Wetland Indicators Type: Peat Average depth to water table: DW1: n/a DW2: 14.9 cm; n=25 DW3: 32.1 cm; n=36 Organic layer thickness: DW1: n/a DW2: 132.2 cm; n=25 DW3: 102.2 cm; n=40 Average depth to redoximorphic features: DW1: n/a DW2: 97.0 cm at the single site measured DW3: 67.8 cm; n=6 Common Soils: DW1: n/a DW2: SALAMATOF, STARICHKOF DW3: STARICHKOF, NIKOLAI, DOROSHIN, SLIKOK, COAL CREEK Common Plant communities: DW1 component: Tall cottongrass – Livid sedge Water sedge / Marsh fivefinger Beaked sedge – Water horsetail Sphagnum moss - Creeping sedge
DW2 component: Water sedge / Marsh fivefinger Sphagnum moss - Creeping sedge
DW3 component: Sweetgale – Dwarf birch / Water horsetail Barclay's willow / Bluejoint / Marsh fivefinger |
| Accuracy assessment: 20 polygons interpreted as DW1-3 on aerial photographs were field checked. 9 remained DW1-3; 1 each was revised to: DW1-4, DW2, DW21, DW5, H21, K1-4, K32, LB21, LB2, LB23 and Reb. None of the 3 polygons interpreted as DW31 on aerial photographs were field checked. | |
DW1-3 map units are complexes in Relict Glacial Drainageway Ecosystems with three components:
a) an open water, and/or emergent vegetation, DW1 central linear feature, fringed by
b) a sedge-dominated, shallow water table DW2 component and
c) a shrubby, hummocky DW3 component.
The components are present at a scale too small to map separately, usually as a relatively narrow linear feature with a DW1 component flowing through the center.
These complexes are diverse, occasionally dominated by a tall, wet assemblage of Thinleaf alder (Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia) water sedge (Carex aquatilis) and bluejoint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis), as well as by the more typical sweetgale (Myrica gale) / sedge plant communities documented above. They often occur just upstream from where water courses become channelized Riparian ecosystems, or where streams spread out across peatlands on the terraced moraines fronting the western Caribou Hills.
