An Emerging Bog

Bogs are wetlands that are in the process of becoming land, albeit spongy, very moist land.  They are one of the features we share with Eurasia, albeit with different plant communities.  They cover vast stretches of Canada and a little bit of the lower 48 states, and are very much emblematic of the "North".  Even where the trees give in to cold winter temperatures, bogs persist, without which the tundra would pretty much be a cold desert.  As much as they are a largely northern affair, most likely owing to the vast amounts of wet ground left over by both the last glaciation and lower temperatures conspiring with low solar radiation to reduce evaporation to a minimum, they do extend south into temperate lands, most notably in Ohio and parts of the Appalachians.  One notable example exists in southern central Michigan, Black Spruce Bog National Natural Landmark, which is surrounded by far more typical temperate deciduous forests.

Likewise, they can be found extending into the Rockies as far south as northern New Mexico, albeit as very unique and contained habitats in lands that otherwise tend to be more known for their aridity and sunny weather, even at higher altitudes.  The bogs there also have plant life more typical of their mountain landscapes, with, for instance, Subalpine Fir (Abies Lasiocarpa) forming the familiar spires at the edge of the bogs rather than the Black Spruce (Picea Mariana) which dominate the scenery in the boreal bogs.

So what's in a bog?  Biomass that replaces open water, essentially.

A mixed-spruce bog that has been slowly overtaking an enclosed bay of Cedar Lake, in Algonquin Provincial Park.  Records indicate that this part of the lake was already slowly turning into a marsh and bog, even though the section of water has been blocked off by the bed of the former Trans-Canadian Canadian National rail line since 1917.  

Here we see a lovely example of a spruce bog,  with some marshy open water gradually being replaced by peat moss, or sphagnum.  Further away from the water's edge, we see a truly remarkable shrub rising from the acidic, nitrogen deficient peat, the Speckled Alder (Alnus Incana).  This alder actually helps introduce nitrogen into the peat and emerging soils by means of special nitrogen fixing nodules down with its root system.  Slightly further in, we start getting trees, with a very hardly noticeable tamaracks (Larix Laricina) blending into the background of spruces, of which we can see both the loosely branched Black Spruce and the more sturdy White Spruce (Picea Glauca).  Black Spruce are normally far more tolerant of the soggy, acidic conditions a bog presents, but all plants that can make it here are adaptable and survivors, so here we see the White Spruces managing just fine outside of their normal habitat in well-drained, but moist, soils.  Obscured by cloud shade in the background is slightly higher ground where can be found many more White Spruces, but also Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus), which, again, can be found slightly off to the right and left of this picture, most likely taking advantage of the full sun conditions found at the edge of a bog.  These pines are common bonus features in bogs in the lower eastern part of their boreal expanse.

Now, this is all well and good you say, but what's in it for me?  Quite a few settlers shared this question, because, well, a bog is hard to build on, and does not necessarily drain even as well as a normal swamp.  Like a normal swamp, however, they can absorb floods and even filter the local ground water nicely, despite the tea-colour their surface water presents.  In addition to the human-related benefits, bogs are vital ecological areas for quite a bit of biomass, which is something of a minor miracle considering as how they are formed in and continue to acidify waters that sometimes cannot support a single fish.