Document Type

Presentation - Oral - to professional peers

Department

Biology

Date of Activity

Winter 4-21-2024

Abstract

Weekly, between February 2 and June 12, 2023 (17 weeks), we attempted to identify most flowering plants, including a few trees, and document their developmental stage and relative abundance. We classified developmental stages as emerging, leafing, flowering, fruiting, and senescent and documented the timing of each stage for all species observed. The relative abundance of each species was estimated as 1, 10, 100, or more than 1000 individuals of each species. One hundred and fifty-seven species were identified over the course of the study. Twenty species were rare, and less than ten individuals were observed. Of these, 20 species were considered rare (less than ten individuals observed), and 13 of these were identified in only one zone. Twenty-one species were abundant, estimated to be represented by more than 1000 individuals each at some point in the study. The trail was divided into five consecutive zones differing in their environmental milieu. We recorded the date of the first observation of each species within each zone. We observed that the dates of developmental stages in some species were highly synchronous while others were not. As expected, developmental stages of some species appeared for only a day or two while others were longer lasting. Of the 157 species we identified, 38 were limited to one of the zones, and 13 were observed in all five zones. We note, of particular importance, that three times as many species have restricted ranges in this study compared to those found ubiquitously.

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