The Impact of Environmental Stress on Subalpine Pedogenesis, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada^∗

Abstract

Soils developed within the subalpine zone at Bow Pass, Banff National Park, Alberta constitute a recorded synthesis of the history and impact of environmental stress. Four pedons from within the ecotone are examined in terms of their profile morphologies and the physicochemical characteristics of their soil horizons. This examination reveals a complex sequence of soil development during the postglacial period and provides evidence of significant disruptions to pedogenesis caused by the aeolian deposition of material containing volcanic ash, forest fires, vegetational change, and avalanching and other geomorphic events. The result of such disruptions has been the formation of polygenetic soils. Further analysis of these soils has resulted in the creation of a sequence of pedogenic pathways of varying complexity which graphically illustrate the impact of postglacial environmental change on the subalpine soil system at Bow Pass.