User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I have chosen to conduct my research in an area of Stanley Park in the City of Vancouver. I visited the site in late April as deciduous trees were unfurling their leaves on a sunny day when the temperature was about 15 degrees.
Stanley Park is a large urban park that is part of the downtown peninsula. It is just over 4 square kilometres in size and is bounded on 3 sides by water and joined to the rest of the City by an isthmus. Several small lakes dot the park, including lost lagoon, which was formerly an estuary. From its inception the park was intended to preserve the coastal rainforest found in this part of coastal BC and to this day it provides myself and many others with the opportunity to experience nature in the heart of the City. The park is mostly forested and is classified as Coastal Western Hemlock (CWH) under the biogeoclimatic zones of BC. However, there is considerable development within the park to facilitate recreation and transportation, including pathways, roads, restaurants, a major highway, the Stanley Park seawall, and cultural institutions.
Overall the topography of the park is that of gentle rises with the northern portion rising high above Burrard inlet. Several beaches surround the parks edge and form marine transition zones. The forest is mostly comprised of evergreens typical of the CWH zone and others that have been planted including western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), western red cedar (Thuja plicata), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), grand fir (Abies grandis), and sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis); deciduous trees include bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa), wild cherry (Prunus avium), choke cherry (Prunus virginiana), and red alder (Alnus rubra); shrubs, ferns, other herbaceous perennials, and moss are also present.
Even though the park has been considerably managed for over a decade, one can tell from moving through the wilder areas that species composition and concentration changes, especially if one walks off designated trails and into the forest. Direct human management in this park is definitely a factor affecting the composition and concentration of tree species; this can be seen by noticing numerous stumps. I also think that distance from developed areas of the park, whether they be boundaries between manicured park areas, paths, roads, and clearings to tracts of seemingly untouched forest away from these edges influence species composition and concentration.
Three questions that are of interest to me include:
- Does tree species composition and concentration in the park change as a function of distance from forest edges and forest interiors?
- Does tree species composition and concentration in the park change as a function of edge type (seaside, roadside, pathway, etc.)?
- Do forest edges allow for more growth of herbaceous plants and shrubs versus forest interiors?
