This article should be categorized as non peer-reviewed academic material for the following reasons:
The article is written by a number of experts, each with their own noted qualifications, working at prestigious schools. It has in-text citations throughout and contains a rich bibliography at the end. However, the article does not overtly identify a referee prior to publication as it does not contain any critique or evaluation.
Original Article Information:
Kumordzi, Bright B., et al. “Linkage of Plant Trait Space to Successional Age and Species Richness in Boreal Forest Understorey Vegetation.” Journal of Ecology, vol. 103, no. 6, 2015, pp. 1610–1620., www.jstor.org/stable/24542707. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.
The area I have selected to observe is a 1 km2 area in Western Ukraine. The area has been chosen primarily due to its accessibility, multiple environmental gradients and its densely populated communities of various animals. The land consists of a gentle sloped hill descending from south to north with a shallow creek bed and stagnant pond on the western aspect, I have been in this area throughout every day for the past few months so it is easy to observe and document daily and hourly changes and behaviors on a regular basis.
Map of Observation Area
Vegetation
Most of the area consisting of mixed temperate forest, creeks and swamp blending into an urban park with some permanent buildings. The forest consists of primarily mixed types of pine and large old growth oak. The forest floor is a mix of smaller plants and shrubs but is clear enough in most places to walk under the trees without becoming entangled in the brush. Among the scrub brush there are poison ivy plants. In lower areas near the ponds the undergrowth becomes almost impassible with various types of bush like plants such as raspberry. These are fed by the higher water concentration in the thick black soil. The urban area is sparsely populated by cypress, old growth oak and pine trees that initial grew prior to the laying of brick paths between the buildings. The grass, likely a human addition, has grown over a grey sandy soil, in the urban area is maintained once every month or so, but is mostly left untouched unless it is tall enough to go to seed.
Drawings from field journal
Wildlife
There are a number of animals who live in the area. Rarely seen is the Red squirrel, (Sciurus vulgaris) populates the trees, while the moles are predominantly in the sandy area of the urban grass. There are many feral dogs which roam far and wide as new packs enter and exit the observation area as food or mates become sparse. A smaller number of different coloured feral cats (likely not from the same litter) stay in the area to prey on the mice, birds, squirrels and the occasional mole. Of note the only birds seen are seagulls, which have left the area due to winter, and the yellow Parus Major which flits around between the worm rich ground and the thick cover of the cypress and pine trees. Some of the feral dogs have had visibly engorged ticks on them as well. There have been no turtles nor fish seen in the pond but it is not well oxygenated by plants, as it contains a great deal of decomposing leaves from the deciduous trees and very little movement from the tiny creek.
Weather
From October to January the weather has transitioned to cool fall to mild winter. Short periods of light rain showers, and a persistent overcast winter sky are rarely disturbed by any significant wind greater than what could be described as a breeze. Despite the winter season the weather here is mild enough for the temperature to range between an average of -5oc at night to +10oc during the day. It has only snowed three times, and it rarely lasts longer than a day or two before melting away.
Questions
Since none of the dog spoor has been seen anywhere in the area, where do the feral dogs defecate? Is it a centralized location?
The moles appear to continue pushing upward and creating molehills, but I am curious if there may be a correlation between soil temp and activity and or the activity of the prolific earthworms?
Does the predation of moles by cats and dogs effect the location of the mole colonies?
The research project as a whole was quite enjoyable. I had trouble planning the initial stages of my sampling, but once I understood what I wanted to study the sampling came along fairly well. One hard part of this study was not having feedback on my small assignments over 40 days. This was during a time when I was doing my field experiments and formulating my data. When I received feedback, I became aware that I had made errors by including raw data on my graph, and ended up changing the results of my experiment to exclude slope aspect. After changing my data to a table that summarized my information. I was able to disprove my hypothesis. At first, I thought the results were underwhelming. However, when I began interpreting my results, I was fascinated with what I had found. Overall, the process was informative and I value the science of Ecology much more than when I started. I ended up learning how detrimental the invasive species Rubus Armeniacus can be to native vegetation, as it is capable of dominating interspecies competition within edge communities and disturbance zones on Vancouver Island. Most of all I like how ecological theory has changed my perception of the surrounding community, as I spent much time exploring its reaches, and learning about environmental processes at work.
My research project was a wild ride. Originally, I had planned to sample bryophytes on Mount Tolmie, which is a park that has an altitudinal gradient. In March when the pandemic hit, I left Victoria – where I was living and attending school – and I did not want to start my entire project from scratch. Earlier in my university career at UVic, I had learned about a website called iNaturalist and I wondered if I could use this website to help me collect data from my original space without having to be there. I ended up using citizen scientist data from iNaturalist in conjunction with some data that I had collected back in February of 2020. Because of this change, I had to make a lot of adjustments in my design and expectations for this project. Using iNaturalist was surprisingly easy, and I was able to get approximately 50 data points for use in my study. Since engaging in the practice of ecology I definitely have a greater appreciation for this field of biology, I have focused on cells and biochemistry for much of my education and never thought much about ecology, but this project opened a big door in my mind!
I had some issues with organizing my data, since it came from a crowd-sourced database. First, I had to decide which genera to include in the data set, and I decided on the three most commonly sighted. Then, I had to select the data that I was concerned with, being the coordinates of each sighting. From there, I used the coordinates to identify the elevation that each sighting was recorded at. Then, I used the number of sightings and elevation to form my graph, with elevation on the x-axis. The results were pretty much as expected, and similar but less evident trends to the graph I created with my predictions earlier on. Due to the small sample size that was available from the iNaturalist database, I would like to collect much more data and examine how the trends on the graph change. I would expect that they would be similar to what is present now but would be much more defined.
Bryophytes are an important component of nutrient cycling in ecosystems and therefore have an impact on soil composition and neighbouring vegetation. Because of this involvement, they have a significant impact on the biogeochemistry of the region (Cornelissen et al., 2007). Understanding biogeochemistry is important for creating a complete picture of the natural environment, and understanding when or why things grow in the habitat. Changes in bryophyte species richness may be indicative of underlying changes in biogeochemistry that are also associated with the change in elevation. Also, there may be a biogeochemical reason why some species are able to live at higher elevations, lower elevations, or all elevations.
Three keywords that I would use to describe my research project are bryophytes, elevation gradient, and biogeochemistry.
Cornelissen, J.H.C., S.I. Lang, N.A. Soudzilozskaia and H.J. During. 2007. Comparative Cryptogram Ecology:A review of Bryophyte and lichen traits that drive biogeochemistry. Annals of Botany. 99(5):987-1001.
My research is focused on studying the disturbance gradient of ecotones within anthropogenic and natural disturbance zones. Disturbances zones can be defined by the term ecotone and are typically found throughout residential areas. Ecotones will result in a transitional area between two communities where interspecies competition between early to mid-successional species can flourish. I am studying Himalayan Blackberry (rubus armeniacus) and its effects within the Pacific maritime ecozone, as this Invasive species has become problematic within the Pacific Northwest. Himalayan blackberry has the ability to quickly spread and due to its longevity, early to mid-successional species typical of ecotones have been heavily affected. Climax species are not affected by the plant, but environmental factors like arrested succession can occur where rubus armeniacus is allowed to proliferate.
By observing the density and average height over a transect I have been able to see the extent of disturbances and seen how succession has been affected. Structural attributes like biomass will not be included within my report, but I hope to be able to show how functional attributes like productivity, nutrient fluxes, and saturation can affect the growth of the clonal vine. The reduction in biodiversity that Himalayan blackberry has created within the Pacific Northwest has become a problem for land planners and understanding interspecies competition that exists between natives and non-native is paramount to restoring natural ecosystems.
I have completed my data collection. In total, I chose 15- 1 m squared replicates within each of my 16 transect lines. I intend to capture the spatial coverage of Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) in differing ecotone environments around my neighbourhood. I did this by measuring height and density (cover class).
My data collection went well, although it was hard to access some of my transect locations due to the bushes being un-passable. I had long pants on and big boots, then I paced one large step for every meter and would record relevant information. Areas where I could not access I would estimate height and location within the transect. I was hoping that by doing 15 – 1 m squared quadrats being slightly wrong on exact location would not influence my results too greatly, as I would still capture the general variability. I also did this in one day so growing patterns would not influence my results
I am starting to realize that Himalayan blackberry is opportunistic. I believe I am going to be able to disprove my hypothesis. Instead of preferring ecotone environments, the Himalayan Blackberry seems to be opportunistic appearing in most transitional locations.
I have had an interesting time collecting data in comparison to how I collected it in the field back earlier in the year. Collecting data using iNaturalist has been somewhat faster, however it does take time how to use it effectively and collect the data that I want. I have been able to collect 87 unique data points of bryophyte sightings located in various locations and elevations at the park. It has been difficult implementing my original sampling design since I am not able to physically collect my own data, so I have to work with what has already been collected. I have noticed patterns in species composition between the upper and lower portions of the park, but this will require further investigation as I begin to organize and analyze data. I plan to choose three to four bryophytes to perform the analysis on, due to the diversity of sightings recorded on iNaturalist.
The initial collection of my data began with deciding how large I wanted to set my transect and the degree of information that I want to convey. I used a random sampling strategy so picking an area to sample was not difficult. At first, I wanted to make five-meter transects running perpendicularly into an ecotone, and then split the five-meter section into 1m2 quadrats. Upon walking the transect I quickly found out that this would be too small, and adjusted by stretching my transect into a fifteen-meter transect.
My sampling strategy is to use cover class and average height within a m2 transect to help express the density and health of Himalayan blackberry within an ecotone. At first, I had trouble with being too methodical in taking average heights of plants. I would record four individual heights within a quadrat and then average the four numbers. I quickly learned that this was going to take too much time. I decided to note the three highest sprouts or patches, and then take an average height of these. For cover class I used six different categories ranked one through six (0-5%;5-25%; 25-50%; 50-75%; 75-95%; 95-100%). Moreover, when recording my data would also try to identify each plant’s species within the differing ecotone zone, but upon reviewing my notes I thought that this may have been outside of the scope of my research.
I also made a physical transect line via flaggers tape with one-meter quadrats sectioned off. I was able to string this along two pathways in my backyard, but have a feeling this will be hard to replicate in the field with growing blackberry vines. For this reason, I decided to replicate 1 m via a large stride, and then each stride I walked would be equal to one transect.
