User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I am choosing to do my field study in Mount Douglas Park, located in Victoria, B.C. I visited the park on February 6th, 2018, at around 12:30 pm. It was overcast, lightly raining at times, with a temperature of 8C. Mount Douglas Park is quite a large park, with an area of 188 hectares, and the summit reaches an elevation of 225 m (District of Saanich, 2018). From what I observed, the lower areas of the park are lightly rolling hills, with flat areas, and are covered in forest. The forest is predominantly douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and there are a few big leaf maples (Acer macrophyllum). The understory is dominated by Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), sword fern (Polystichum munitum), snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus), and Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) which I identified when I got home. The top of Mount Douglas Park transitions into a more open, rocky ecosystem with garry oak (Quercus garryana) and arbutus (Arbutus menziesii) trees, with scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) becoming prominent. Lichens tended to favour one side of the tree, which usually faced more open areas, but could be a NSEW preference. The Oregon grape leaves seemed to be smaller at the summit, and had a reddish hue.
The park is disturbed with a high presence of invasive species such as English holly (Ilex aquifolium) and English ivy (Hedera helix).
There are an infinite amount of possibilities here, but three areas that seem most feasible to explore are:
- The size of the Oregon grape leaves/plant is smaller in the open areas at the top of Mount Douglas, compared to the lower, closed forest.
- The green dust/or crust lichen prefers certain sides of trees, however the sides that the lichen prefers seems to vary in the park, therefore, is it a NSEW preference, or a light availability preference?
- Do the areas surrounding the heavily used trails have less species diversity (or more invasive species) than the less frequently used trails?
District of Saanich. (2018). Mount Douglas Park. Retrieved February 6, 2018 from: http://www.saanich.ca/EN/main/parks-recreation-culture/parks/parks-trails-amenities/signature-parks/mount-douglas-park.html
