MB Rangeland & Pasture Health Initiative:
Plant Communities Guide
Introduction
Manitoba’s Rangeland Plant Communities
For using the Manitoba Range and Pasture Health Assessment Method for grasslands, or for managing or restoring native grassland communities, you need to know what Reference Plant Communities (RPCs) are possible, as described in a Manitoba’s Rangeland Plant Communities Guide, for the growing conditions that you are working in (i.e. “Rangeland Ecoregions” and “Ecosites”). The guides have additional non-RPC plant community descriptions and the transitional pathways to help you understand the variety of vegetation possible for any one ecosite in a rangeland ecoregion, and how to manage towards a selected target plant community. The first guide in the series is completed, based on real datasets from the region.
Each rangeland ecosite has one or more reference plant communities (RPC).These are the late seral communities that could eventually establish on an ecosite under current climatic conditions, with beneficial management. Plant communities change (transition) according to natural succession, growing conditions, natural and human disturbances, and idleness. State and Transition diagrams can be used to indicate plant community relationships, successional status, and how one community transitions into another.
Manitoba’s Rangeland Plant Communities of the Aspen Parkland and Assiniboine Delta Rangeland Ecoregions
This guide attempts to summarize the plant communities that are expected to occur on rangelands within the area west of the Manitoba Escarpment. While it is designed for the Aspen Parkland and Assiniboine Delta Rangeland Ecoregions, it may still be useful for some of the grasslands existing in the Mid–Boreal Uplands and Transition Rangeland Ecoregion (i.e. in and around Riding Mountain National Park and Duck Mountain Provincial Park), and the Southwest Manitoba Uplands Rangeland Ecoregion (i.e. Turtle Mountains and Pembina Hills). Note: because this is a demonstration of the Plant Community Guides that we want to produce for all of agri-Manitoba, only the plant communities across 4 common ecosites (Loam, Sand, Moist Sand, and Dunes) are provided at this time. Access the file below.
