Talk:Alvar

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I have slightly changed the first sentence to define Alvar as an ecosystem rather than just a physical environment, which is in keeping with the rest of the article. Its usage to describe a karst landform is not reflected in most karst terminology glossaries (and none of the on-line ones). I have also removed the sentence regarding poor drainage and springtime flooding, as this is not typical of some of the alvars cited in the article nor of the karst pavements of Britain and western Canada, which tend to be perched and drain quite well. Ian mckenzie 23:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

That would not appear to have been a correct change based on Holdridge life zones --Belg4mit (talk) 20:56, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Photos

I am taking the liberty to replace the view of Kelley's Island; it's not a good photo, and it's mostly a forested shoreline. (I seem to recall that the Great Lake alvars are less open than those of Europe, so a better photo would be nice!)

Replacing it with my own from Kinnekulle. If anyone has one from Öland that'd be better; my photo shows the exposed limestone slabs, but not the vast, almost treeless plains of Öland's alvar.

Also adding another picture (complementing the existing Kelley's Island photo) showing sparse vegetation typical for thin-soil, springtime flooded, alvars.

JöG 09:06, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Incorrect sentence

It says in the lead "The primary cause of alvars is the shallow exposed bedrock". I can't find any references online for this but surely alvars, like limestone pavements are formed by glacial action and this in turn produces the biological environment of shallow exposed bedrock covered in thin soil. So to say that the shallow exposed bedrock is the primary cause of alvars is wrong. Richerman (talk) 08:42, 1 May 2016 (UTC)