I have decided to study a forested area adjacent to my rural house in Clearwater BC. The area is about 9.1 hectares in size, located at valley bottom on the base of a slope. The forested area chosen is primarily private land which backs on 3 rural homes with one edge of the area running alongside a large power line corridor. There is also a small subsection of forested area that runs between two private properties. The forested area is primarily a second growth Douglas fir stand with some Lodge pole pine and Paper birch within the stand. The site was visited from 12:30 to 14:40 on April 30 2019, the weather was mainly sunny with a few scattered clouds.
Figure 1
Three possible questions for this area could be,
Is there a difference in tree species/species concentration in the forested area between the cleared homestead and the forested area deeper within the site (See Figure 2)?
Do observed American robins nest within the forested area in the same concentration as the homestead area?
What are the observable human impacts in the homestead area compared to the forested area? Figure 2
I have chosen my backyard in Swift Current Saskatchewan.
The area is approximately 37 m2 (~6m x 6m). It is a grassy backyard fenced in and has an ornamental shrub and a few trees in it.
I visited the site May 7, 2019 at 6:00 pm – it was 15°C with some clouds in the sky. It has been an uncharacteristically cold May and there were snow falls up until last weekend but it is finally warming up now.
I have observed:
Birds that are black with white on their wings and breast (Black-Billed Magpie?)
Some small brown and black birds (House Sparrow/House Finch/Dark-Eyed Junco?)
Small black squirrel
Some questions:
Is this squirrel a frequent visitor of the yard? Does her visits depend on the time of day or weather?
How many different types of small birds visit this yard? And how frequently do they visit the yard? Does this depend on time of day, weather, or temperature?
Does the amount of rain effect the number of animals that visit the yard?
I chose to observe a forest ecosystem that has recently been harvested.
20-04-2019 – 1200pm – 1430pm
Sunny and cool 12 degrees Celsius
Geographic Location – Hills, BC (UTM Ref: 462075 E 5553782N) West Kootenays
Gross Area – 53.8ha
Harvested Area – 34.1ha (Harvested in the fall of 2018)
Wildlife Retention Area – 10.3ha (Retention areas were noted to have high-value riparian areas)
Deferred Area – 7.6ha (small opening, immature forests) harvested in the year 2000. Planted in 2002.
Ecological Description
Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) – Interior Cedar Hemlock (ICHmw2) zone
A complex site with four site series
Mid-lower slope
Hummocky terrain
Slope range 3% – short pitches of 55%
Leading Vegetation – Too early in the season to identify any early serial species established.
Observations (Stations (1-1 -1-5) are associated with a KMZ file from Avenza Maps)
Questions:
What native plant species will establish on the heavily disturbed soil from the rehabbed road (Hills 4200)?
Numerous Pine Siskins were noted within the deferred area (12-year-old plantation). What habitat value or features do advanced plantations have? Where would birds nest in immature forests?
After the mature timber harvested, what new limiting factors are introduced to the adjacent plantations and understory trees?
I have chosen to conduct my research in the forest area adjacent to my house, which consists of a heavily wooded area surrounding a rocky knoll in Creston, B.C. It is approximately 20 acres of privately-owned land (see Figure 1) with a walking trail that is used by people in the neighbourhood and their dogs.
The research area borders a large cherry orchard immediately to the south as well as other sizable fruit and vegetable farms about 2 km to the west. Residential neighbourhoods enclose the direct west and north boundaries, while the forest continues to the east. Highway 3 runs parallel to the forest about 500 m to the east.
The forest is mostly comprised of deciduous pine and fir trees, but also has many cedars and larches. There are lots of small shrubs and bushes among the trees, varying in height from approximately 20 cm to a meter.
The composition of vegetation on the rocky outcrop in the centre of the area is mostly moss and lichen, with a few short, bare shrubs on the slope (see Figure 2).
What causes the difference in abundance of the tree types throughout the research area? I observed that the north side of the forest is mainly bull pines, then cedars predominate in an area of lower elevation that was logged about three years ago, and finally a mix of bull pine and fir trees on the south end that is slightly higher elevation and closest to the cherry orchard (no cedars).
Do the pesticides for the cherry trees affect the growth of other plants closest to the orchard (Figure 3)? Dormant sprays should have been applied in the fall and may have been carried by the wind to the plants at the edge of the forest especially.
Lichen was observed growing largely on the north side of pine trees in the area. What kind of symbiotic relationships exist between the lichen and the tree? If the lichen has photosynthetic cyanobacteria in it, why does it grow on the shadier side of the tree? Is the lichen visible on the rocky outcrop the same species of lichen as on the trees, even though the rocky outcrop gets much more sun? Field Notes for April 07, 2019
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?
Stanley Park MapCathedral TrailCathedral Trail Initial Notes
The site I selected for my field research project is the acreage on which I live, in the Creston Valley, about half a kilometer west of the Kootenay River. It is a partly wooded, 3.15ha site, on an east-facing hillside at 49˚05’N; 116˚36’W. The elevation ranges from 540-576m above sea level. The site is part of a corridor between farm fields below through a narrow band of rural properties, backing up to the foot of a steep mountain slope covered with dense, undisturbed coniferous forest, above. I would like to better understand the role of wildlife connectivity corridors in the face of increasing human population pressures in rural British Columbia.
I am including in my site an approximately 200m2 pond adjacent to our lower southeast corner (please see my attached “map”); though it is on our neighbours’ lot, it is important to observed species richness. There is a dense aspen stand adjacent to the northeast corner of our property that may also contribute to animal biodiversity. Thus, my study area includes the pond and its wetland, about two acres of mixed conifer forest, two and a half acres of grassland, a quarter-acre hillside of moss-covered bedrock, and three acres of intensely cultivated farm with a small homestead, outbuildings, greenhouse, orchard, and market garden. The property has been a farm for at least 60 years.
Although I’ve lived on this land for ten years and know something of the diverse species here, I want to know them more precisely, and to understand their interactions (patterns and processes) more scientifically. I went out to ground-truth some of my ideas about the land, plants, and animals on April 22, 2019, 14:00-16:00, on a sunny, early-spring, afternoon. I’d like to make an approximate census of the plants, animals, and fungi present now, so that I can better monitor future change.
My detailed observations are recorded in my field journal. I noted an encroachment of noxious weeds. There is also presently a die-off of two key mature tree species (grand fir and western redcedar), which a local forester told me is widely occurring throughout the Kootenays, due to the extreme heat and extended droughts of the past few summers. I am interested in whether the natural germination and early success of seedlings of only certain species indicates a community change as a result of changing climate of the valley – for example, if a census of trees less than 2ft tall would show a statistically significant difference in richness and distribution compared to the mature trees fifty years of age or greater?
Questions that I might like to explore are:
Does the encroachment of noxious weeds spread outward from our roads in a definite gradient?
Can I demonstrate that the conifer die-off is related to drought?
Can the observed richness and biodiversity of birds and mammals be associated with the variety of habitats available on our property? Or is it that we provide a connectivity corridor between farm fields/Kootenay River below and the upland mountain habitat?
By comparing an old growth conifer census with seedling census, can I demonstrate that the composition of the conifer community is changing in response to a decade of hotter, drier summers? Can a future mature stand be predicted by seedling starts, or are there too many confounding factors relating to which plants will survive to maturity to make this correlation?
A couple of natural history observations included a beautiful display of the early wildflowers western spring beauty(Claytonia lanceolata) and glacier lily(Erythronium grandiflorum) on the mossy rocks. I observed a courtship display by four male hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus), in the presence of three females. Since I didn’t have a way to record the visual display and sound, I found a you-tube video of what I saw that had been recorded at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary. The link is www.youtube.com/watch?v=XanDih-x2TQ if you’d like to see and hear pretty much exactly what happened on the pond!
I listed in my field notes my sightings of a number of bird species and a reptile (Western painted turtle); I heard some frogs; and saw evidence of a number of mammals. I have listed the common and scientific names in my attached field notes.
The location that I have chosen to observe is the center of the Thompson Rivers University Campus. There are a number of ornamental plants, large trees and grasses. Depending on time of day the campus can go from little to no human traffic to lots of human traffic. The area that I am observing is approximately 400 to 500 m in circumference and is an oval/circular area with walkways and buildings on the perimeter and grass and a few trees in the center. I will be visiting this location in the afternoons during March and early April to make my observations. From my initial observations of this location the three questions that could possibly be turned into a research project are…
What time of day are there the largest number of birds present?
Does human traffic affect the number of birds on campus?
What species of birds are most common on campus?
The following image is a drawing of the location which I chose to observe. Please note this drawing was done from the fourth floor of the House of Learning.
(03/17/19; 12:00-15:30; 6° Celsius; no precipitation; scattered clouds; light wind from the west)
(03/24/19; 13:00-14:30; 11° Celsius; no precipitation; clear sky; light wind from the west)
(03/31/19; 12:30-14:30; 5° Celsius; light rain; full cloud cover; light wind from the west)
Study Location:
The area I have chosen for my field project is located at the confluence of the Peace and Halfway Rivers in north eastern British Columbia, approximately 46 kilometres (km) southwest of the city of Fort St. John, B.C. (Figure 1A). The field site has a perimeter of 2.33 km, an area of 0.34 km² and an average elevation of approximately 430 metres (m); all topographical measurements were quantified using Google Earth (Figure 1B). An aerial photograph of my field site was provided to me by a friend conducting a flyover survey and was taken on March 31, 2019 (Figure 1C). An unpaved pullout south of the Highway 29 bridge crossing the Halfway River will serve as a staging area and the northern-most boundary of any potential surveys in my field study. The western boundary of the study area extends southwest along the eastern bank of the Halfway River’s main channel, meandering south toward its confluence with the Peace River. The eastern extent of the study area follows southeast from the staging area, extending along the eastern channel of the Halfway River’s boundary with a a riparian area until it connects with the Peace River. These boundaries create a somewhat triangular survey area that includes both the Peace and Halfway Rivers, a floodplain, an historic floodplain and a forested riparian area (Figure 1 B).
Relatively easy access, the confluence of two rivers, diverse substrates and terrain as well as readily apparent gradients of vegetation and evidence of animal life drew me to this study site (Figures 2A – Figure 2D). For example, I observed loose rocky substrates, fines, sand and gravel bars while other substrates remain covered by ice. There is large woody debris distributed across the floodplain and historic floodplain in which a variety of grasses, willows and small poplars dominate, while the riparian vegetation is characterized by large, well entrenched pine and balsam poplar trees. The south bank of the Peace River towers over the Halfway River and the confluence, with an elevation nearing 500 m. The south bank is very steep and is dominated by pine trees with significant erosion occurring, I often observed rock, earth and ice falling to the river below. Over the course of three visits I have directly observed a variety of vertebrates (e.g., Mule Deer, Canada Geese, swans, dabbling ducks, a Bald Eagle, a rabbit, a sharp-tailed grouse), their tracks (e.g., elk, deer, wolf, coyote, rabbit, goose, raven), droppings (e.g., deer and goose) and nests (e.g., Bald Eagle, Bank Swallow) as well as some invertebrates (e.g., spiders, mosquito larvae).
Three questions:
Outside of the riparian area, several small pine trees have grown in highly localized spots along the east bank of the Halfway River’s main channel. How does vegetation vary across my study area, and what is different about the area in which these pine trees have grown?
Is there a correlation between river level/discharge and the presence (or signs) of animal species I have observed at the confluence?
Is there a correlation between river level/discharge and presence of mosquito larvae that I have observed at the confluence?
The study area is in Mount Currie, approximately 8 km north of Pemberton, on Nelson Bar Ranch. The area is approximately 7 hectares in size. 1/3 of the perimeter of the area is touching the Birkenhead River. A major portion (80%) of the area is an open grass field which contains 10 horses. There are forested areas, which have conifers such as cedar, and deciduous such as birch and cottonwood. Vegetation also include shrubs, and mosses.
Nelson Bar Ranch
The site was visited 09-04-2019, in the spring, from 1500 – 1704. It was sunny with some clouds, but it was mainly clear. It was 14 degrees centigrade with a slight breeze blowing west.
I observed the east and west edges of the field near the river. The west edge of the river mainly contained deciduous trees, with one cedar sapling found in the study area. There was leaf debris from the edge of the field to the edge of the river. All the shrubs were shorter than 5 feet 6 inches (shorter than me). The area is a ranch, so horses and humans occupy the area daily. Moss was present on the west side and was mixed in with the grass. There was little to no moss on the living trees and debris. I heard 4 different bird calls in this study area.
West, vegetation layersWest, leaf debrisWest, cedar sapling
The east edge contained a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees. The ground was softer than the soil of the west edge. More trees were present on the east edge, which provided more canopy cover. Leaf debris covered the whole ground area. Grass didn’t seem present, even when moving some leaf debris. Moss was present on living trees as well as branch and log debris. In this area, the shrubs were taller than 5 foot 6 inches (taller than me). Fungi was only found on the east side. While on this edge of the field, I only heard one bird call.
East, cedar layerEast edge, riparian layerEast edge, cedar layer meeting riparian layerEast edge, fungi
My three questions are:
Is moss more present in areas with less human disturbance or is it more related to the habitat? Moss was more present in the area farthest away from human contact, but also the ground was more moist and there was more canopy cover.
Does the amount of canopy cover relate to whether fungi is present or absent? Or is it related to moisture level? The east side had more canopy cover, and the ground was softer and more moist.
Is the west edge of the field a better habitat for birds? If so, what makes it better? A variety of bird calls were heard on the west edge, while only one was heard on the east edge.
This study is being conducted at the Courtenay River Estuary which is designated as a City of Courtenay Park. The site is being visited on April 8, 2019 at 1830 hours. The weather is overcast with little wind and the temperature is 9 degrees centigrade. The estuary is located approximately one kilometer from downtown Courtenay. The Estuary is the area where the Courtenay River flows into the Pacific Ocean sitting at 49.68 degrees North and 124.99 degrees West. The shoreline of the estuary is approximately 1 km across with the depth changing from as little as 5 meters wide to 500 meters during low tide.
There is a bank from the edge of the beach up to the grassy plateau sloping at approximately 10% grade. The estuary is made up of several different types of vegetation. Seagrasses and seaweed are found in the muddy flats with increasing amounts of seagrass closer to shore and decreasing amounts of seaweed closer to shore. The shoreline consists of a mixture driftwood, rocks, seagrasses, and various plants that appear to be more typical to be found on dry land than under water. There is a sprinkling of deciduous trees along the top of the bank. It appears most of the native trees have been removed to create a paved walkway and a small airport which is located steps from the estuary.
Some of the flowers and flowering shrubs along the shoreline have flowers blossoming at different rates. As it is early spring, and vegetation started growing within the past 3 weeks. The flowers that receive unobstructed sun are further along in their flowering cycle.
I pose the following 3 questions;
I observe many of the reed-like plants have died in the tidal flats. Leading me to question did they die due to poor growing conditions, or do they die off seasonally. I discovered some of the same reed-like plants on the shore edge that appear healthy. I will continue to observe their growth as spring progresses.
I also note an interesting pattern in the sand. It is circular shaped with greyish sand that was noticeably different then the surrounding beige sand. The circle has 4 an imprint in it with arms similar to a starfish shape and in the center is a hole. I suspect there must be some type of shellfish living underneath this hole. I will continue to look for clues to the source of this pattern.
I also notice there are only 2 seagulls on the estuary side and 6 ducks in the small inlet. As the estuary is known as a good place to view a variety bird I wonder if I will see if more birds as the season changes.
Figure 2
