GESC Field Studies

The Koffler Scientific Reserve (KSR) is located in York Region (formerly York County) in King Township. Below are a number of links to documents and maps that detail abiotic and biotic features of the broader ecosystem setting as well as individual site details.

Abiotic feature reports

• The Physiography of Southern Ontario (note: this is a large document, 227 mb)
  • The above report provides physiographic details for all of the regions in Ontario
  • The KSR covers 2 different regions: 
    1. Oak Ridges Moraine (see pp. 52)
    2. Simcoe Lowlands (see pp. 177)
       • See this detailed physiographic map of the area showing the boundaries of the physiographic regions.
• Soil survey of York County
  • Soils in and around the KSR are classified by the Soil Survey as being predominantly Pontypool Sandy Loam, with areas of Bondhead Loam found to the northwest, and Bondhead Sandy Loam found south of the 19th Sideroad. (it may be outside your field study boundaries)
  • Descriptions of these soil types can be found in the survey
• Soil map of study area from Scholars Geoportal
  • Sign in using WLU login/pwd if off campus
• Glenville Hill Kames Provincially Significant Earth Science ANSI
  • A report written the OMNR detailing significant "earth science features" of this area
  • Boundaries are slightly to the east of the KSR site
  • NOTE: this report generously provided by Steve Varga of the OMNR. Report should be cited as:
    • Gorell, G., Kor, P.S.G., Webster, D, & Varga, S. (2012). Oak Ridges Moraine - Earth science ANSI inventory: Glenville Hills Kames ANSI [unpublished report]. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Parks and Protected Areas Policy Section. 
• Quaternary landform and sediment analysis of the Alliston area (southern Simcoe County), Ontario, Canada (MSc Thesis, 2013, McMaster University)
  • This recent thesis has some discussion of landscapes and physiographic regions in the Alliston area (see discussion of Oak Ridges Moraine, pp. 59, and Simcoe Lowlands, pp. 66) and includes the KSR site as part of its study area.

Ecosystem Information

• The KSR is located in Ecoregion 6E (Lake Simcoe-Rideau) on the boundary between Ecodistrict 6E-6 (Barrie Ecodistrict) and Ecodistrict 6E-7 (Oak Ridges Ecodistrict)
• See Part 1 below for classification and description of the ecoregion, and Part 2 for the classification and definition of ecodistricts.
  • The Ecosystems of Ontario, Part 1: Ecozones and Ecoregions
  • Ecosystems of Ontario, Part 2: Ecodistricts

Research conducted at Koffler Scientific Reserve

• Google scholar page
• KSR Research Publications page