Ecoregion profile: Manitoulin–Lake Simcoe

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Michelle-Anne Auger, Hugo Larocque and Doug Trant, Environment Accounts and Statistics Division

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The Manitoulin–Lake Simcoe ecoregion is located in Ontario (Map 3) and covers an area of 46,600 km2. This is slightly larger than the average Canadian ecoregion of approximately 45,000 km2. The Manitoulin–Lake Simcoe ecoregion makes up the western portion of the Mixed Wood Plains ecozone and it extends from Manitoulin Island to Kingston.

The Manitoulin–Lake Simcoe ecoregion was the fourth most densely populated ecoregion in Canada in 2006, with 58 persons per km2. The population was 2.7 million people in 2006, an 81% increase over 1971 (Table 4). The main population centres in the ecoregion include Kingston, Belleville, Peterborough, Oshawa, Kitchener, Barrie, Owen Sound, Stratford, and Brantford.

The physiography of the ecoregion is characterized by deep glacial deposits accumulated over successive periods of glaciation. One of the dominant landforms in the ecoregion is the Niagara Escarpment, which extends northwesterly from the Niagara River to Manitoulin Island. Soils that have formed in the ecoregion are fertile due to a combination of favourable long-term climate, geology and vegetation. More than 60% of the ecoregion is classified as dependable agricultural land, representing 6.3% of Canada's total stock of dependable agricultural land (Table 4).

The dominant land cover in the ecoregion is crops and pasture, making up 56.0% of the area (Chart 6, Map 4 and Table 4). Forests cover 27.5% of the ecoregion, followed by water (6.0%), wetland (3.6%), shrubland (3.0%) and developed land (2.9%).

The area protected in the ecoregion amounts to 964 km2, or just over 2.1% of the total area (Table 4).

More than 1.4 million people were employed in the ecoregion in 2006 (Table 4). Educational and health care services was the largest employment category, employing 16.6% of the total labour force, followed by manufacturing (16.2%) and retail and wholesale trade (16.0%) (Chart 7).

The rich soils and favourable climate of the ecoregion support a strong agricultural economy. Agriculture in the ecoregion contributed $4.5 billion (10.7%) to Canada's total farm sales of $42.2 billion in 2005 (Table 4).

Total farmland area—which includes cropland, summerfallow and pasture lands—declined in the ecoregion from 2.9 million hectares in 1971, to 2.5 million hectares in 2006. During the same period, the area of revenue-generating cropland increased by 19%.

From 1971 to 2006 the number of cattle dropped by 30% to 1.2 million, while the number of pigs increased by 71% and poultry stocks rose by 62%. The fastest growing livestock category was goats, up 1,226% (Table 4).

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