Distribution of woody debris in a small headwater lake, central Ontario, Canada

The distribution of woody debris in the littoral zone of a small, oligotrop hic headwater lake in south central Ontario, Canada was studied. Coarse woo dy debris (CWD) was defined as pieces of wood with a large-end diameter gre ater than or equal to 10 cm and medium woody debris (MWD) as pieces of wood with a small-end diameter of 2.5 to 10 cm. The mean length, diameter and v olume of CWD was 530.4 cm, 17.3 cm and 181.9 dm(3). For MWD, these paramete rs were 52.2 cm, 5.0 cm and 1.43 dm(3), respectively. CWD was determined to be present at 1.18 pieces/m shore line occupying a volume of 0.212 m(3)/m shore line (0.0212 m(3)/m(2)). MWD was estimated to be present at 24 pieces /m shore line occupying a volume of 0.034 m(3)/m shore line (0.0034 m(3)/m( 2)). There were significant correlations between the slope of the ecotonal lake bottom and number of CWD pieces found at each site and between water d epth and volume of MWD, which suggests a trend for greater accumulation in steeper, deeper areas as opposed to shallower bays.