The Hudson Bay Lowlands is a vast
wetland located between the
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...
and southern shores of
Hudson Bay and
James Bay. Most of the area lies within the province of
Ontario, with smaller portions reaching into
Manitoba and
Quebec. Many wide and slow-moving
rivers flow through this area toward the saltwater of Hudson Bay: these include the
Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
,
Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
and
Hayes in Manitoba,
Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
,
Fawn
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindee ...
,
Winisk, Asheweig,
Ekwan,
Attawapiskat, and
Albany in Ontario, and the
Harricana,
Rupert
Rupert may refer to:
People
* Rupert (name), various people known by the given name or surname "Rupert"
Places Canada
* Rupert, Quebec, a village
*Rupert Bay, a large bay located on the south-east shore of James Bay
*Rupert River, Quebec
*Rupert ...
and
Eastmain
Eastmain ( ; cr, ᐄᔅᒣᐃᓐ/Îsmein) is a Cree community located on east coast of James Bay at the mouth of the Eastmain River, Quebec, Canada. It is a small coastal Cree village with a population of 924 people in the 2021 Canadian Censu ...
in Quebec.
[Canadian Encyclopedia - Hudson Bay]
/ref> This is the largest wetland in Canada, and one of the largest in the world.[Abraham, K.F. and C.J. Keddy. The Hudson Bay Lowland. Pages 118–148 in L.H. Fraser and P.A. Keddy (eds.). 2005. The World's Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation. Cambridge University Press, ]Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
, UK. 488 p. The region can be subdivided into three bands running roughly northwest to southeast: the Coastal Hudson Bay Lowland (a narrow band along the northern coast), Hudson Bay Lowland (a broader band extending to slightly south of the Ekwan River), and James Bay Lowland (all the rest of the southern/eastern lands, making up close to 50% of the total Lowlands area).
The entire area was covered by ice during the last glaciation
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
, and the peatlands have accumulated over the last ten thousand years. Plants from more temperate regions mix with arctic species.[Riley, John L. 2003. Flora of the Hudson Bay Lowland and its Postglacial Origins. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada. 236 p.] A majority of the wetland is peat bog, although salt marshes occur along the coast, and marshes and wet meadows occur along the major rivers. The wetlands provide important habitat for migratory birds including shorebirds (e.g., yellow rail
The yellow rail (''Coturnicops noveboracensis'') is a small secretive marsh bird, of the family Rallidae that is found in North America.
Taxonomy
The yellow rail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in ...
) and waterfowl (e.g., snow geese). Large mammals include polar bears and wolverines
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...
.[
]
Early discoveries and exploration
The local Ojibwa and Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations.
In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree or ...
most likely came into contact with the region but did not populate the region due to the harsh, undesirable conditions and poor drainage patterns of the area. When Europeans arrived in the area, the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
set up trading posts such as Rankin Inlet, some of which remain populated today. However, these never grew into sizable towns, again because of the poor living conditions and climate. To this day, not all of the lowlands have been properly explored. There are a few small First Nations settlements on the southern shore of Hudson Bay Lowlands at places like Moose Factory
Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in lands no ...
, Moosonee
Moosonee () is a town in northern Ontario, Canada, on the Moose River approximately south of James Bay. It is considered to be "the Gateway to the Arctic" and has Ontario's only saltwater port. Nearby on Moose Factory Island is the community of ...
, Attawapiskat, and Fort Severn
Fort Severn, in present-day Annapolis, Maryland, was built in 1808 on the same site as an earlier American Revolutionary War fort of 1776. Although intended to guard Annapolis harbor from British attack during the War of 1812, it never saw act ...
.
Geography
The region is named after the nearby inland sea, Hudson Bay, the second largest in the world. The entire area drains into the bay through rivers such as the Churchill, Severn, and Attawapiskat. The region is located in the extreme north of Ontario, extending into both Manitoba to the west and Quebec in the east, and covers around 25 percent of Ontario's total land area (approximately 228,400 km2). The area was covered in ice during the last glacial maximum, and then flooded as the ice receded, leaving behind plains that are slowly rising out of the ocean due to post-glacial rebound.[ Peatlands, both bogs and fens now cover much of the landscape,][Sjörs, H. 1959. Bogs and fens in the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Arctic 12:2-19.] with other kinds of wetlands along rivers and the coast. The climate of the region depends largely on the water surface of the bay, which heats rapidly in the summer, breaking the ice and bringing rains to the lowlands. In the winter, the bay freezes over again, bringing freezing temperatures and winds. The vegetation is mostly conifer forest and peatland, with typical subarctic and boreal plants.[
]
Industries
The forestry industry is present in the coniferous forest
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...
s of the region. There is a growing tourist industry which includes fly-fishing and beluga The beluga whale (/bɪˈluːɡə/) (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the wh ...
and seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...
-watching excursions.
The Hudson Bay Lowlands also contain vast mineral deposits, particularly chromite
Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can su ...
and nickel. The Ring of Fire development project plans to build roads to enable resource extraction. Plans for development in the area are under undergoing environmental assessment.
See also
*Geology of Ontario
The geology of Ontario consists of the study of the rock formations in the most populated province of Canada. Ontario has some of the oldest rocks on Earth. It is made up of ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock and overlain by younger ...
References
External links
Map of the Hudson Plains Ecoregions
Map of major rivers draining into southern Hudson Bay
Proposed protected areas in Manitoba.
Hudson Bay in The Canadian Encyclopedia
Arctic Institute paper by Hugo Sjörs, Bogs and Fens in the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
*
{{coord, 54, 45, N, 83, 00, W, display=title, region:CA-ON
Physiographic regions of Canada
Wetlands of Ontario
Geography of Northern Ontario
Hudson Bay