User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The area I selected to observe is a low-lying (currently very wet) forested area. It’s approximately 2 acres in size and completely flat. It is located beside a bike trail in Prince George, BC in the southern part of the city at the base of the hill going up to the University of Northern British Columbia. The exact coordinates are 53° 54′ 13.0874″ N and 122° 48′ 33.678″ W taken from Google Maps. I visited the site on April 27th, 2020 at 5 PM. The temperature was 12° celcius and it was overcast and rainy. You can see all this information in Fig 1.
The vegetation is mostly trees and some bushes and shrubs that I’ll be able to more easily identify once they grow berries and leaves.
The species of trees I observed were:
- Engelmann Spruce
- Subalpine Fir
- Douglas Fir
- White/Paper Birch
- Black Cottonwood
- Trembling Aspen
The oldest/biggest trees in the area were engelmann spruce and douglas fir. In terms of water, if you look at Fig 2 you can see there are many small streams running through the sandy/muddy ground. I had to wear rubber boots while traversing through the area. I’m assuming this water is mostly snowmelt, as none of the streams have any rocks or any other signs of being there all year. There was no sign of any animal tracks (only dogs) or any birds.
Some thoughts on research questions (mostly centered around my main interest, trees):
- How did the evergreen trees grow here succesfully with how wet and muddy the ground is? What changes occur to this area once there is less water? What is the main type of soil here? I can check this by choosing an area and digging a hole once the water dries up.
- I’d like to research succession of this small area of forest. What is the average age of the oldest and biggest trees in this area? I don’t have a increment borer but once I confirm the species I can use rough calculations of diameter and the growth factor of that specific species to determine this. I would like to inventory and name the 10 oldest trees with the largest DBH in this small area. What species are going to succeed the older trees once they die? Or is this possibly a climax forest?
- What species of animal frequent this area? What does the presence of these animals tell me about the ecosystem? From my first observations I didn’t look for animal tracks but in my next visits I can look for tracks and scat.
Fig 1.
Fig 2.
Your study site sounds interesting though from your description sounds homogeneous – similar vegetation, elevation and moisture throughout, is this true? Some of your questions above are interesting and some will be difficult to study in this course. It is difficult to ask questions about succession by looking at only one site if the whole site is an even age. I think you will get some more good ideas as you think more about the site and work through the modules.
Luckily the moisture and vegetation change throughout the site as I move closer to the bottom of the hill. I will mention this in my third blog post