User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The area that I have selected for my field research project is the Erlton/Roxboro Natural Area in Calgary, AB (Figure 1). Located in the heart of Calgary, it is designated as a natural park. This designation specifies the importance of maintaining its natural flora and fauna by the city. This area, covering approximately 13,300m², comprises a hill leading to an upper ridge with an elevation change of about 27m.
Roxboro & Erlton off-leash dog park flanks the base of the hill on the west side and there are two main walking trails. One trail leads up the side and across the upper ridge while the other meanders horizontally across the slope about 50% of the way up. Other nearby features include a children’s playground, tennis courts, a cemetery, the Elbow River and residential communities. As an important side note, the city of Calgary has posted a sign regarding upcoming herbicide application against dandelions and other broad leaf weeds.
I visited the area on 10/07/2020 in summer at 11:15 until 13:00. The weather was 22°C and mostly sunny. On the day I visited, the top of the ridge was bathed in sunlight while the lower half was shaded, primarily due to the canopy of larger trees (Figure 2).
The forest floor at the bottom of the slope was marked by a labyrinth of fallen logs and grass (Figure 3).
Further up the hill, the underbrush of the forest was more dense with greater varieties of grass and wildflowers (Figure 4).
Just before the slope levels out at the top, the incline sharpens and reveals patches where the ground is more eroded (Figure 5).
The top of the ridge is flat and riddled with wildflowers, grass, shrubs, and trees (Figure 6).
Another noteworthy feature is a small spring at the midpoint of the slope that trickles down at the southern end.
On this day, I noted a lot of noise emanating from the surrounding streets, playground, dog park and local construction.
Birds were seen primarily throughout the more forested areas both on the ground and in the trees, sometimes feeding on garbage. Bees were seen among the wildflowers, and I also identified what I believe to be bobcat scat. Among the flora and fauna, several species were identifiable including:
Black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia)
Northern flickers (Colaptes auratus)
Black knot (Apiosporina morbosa) (Figure 7)
Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense)
Siberian peashrub (Caragana arborescens) (Figure 8)
Canadian violet (Viola canadensis)
Questions:
- Does the amount of time birds spending foraging on the ground differ statistically across varying proximities to anthropogenic related noise?
- How significantly does the angle of the slope impact a tree’s seed dispersal radius?
- How significantly different is soil moisture retention between steeper vs. flatter sections, and/or sunnier vs. shadier areas? How might this impact biodiversity in those zones?
