1. A). Saylorville and Prospect Park Upland are the most similar communities. This was determined by a value of 48% (Table 4). This suggest that Saylorville and Prospect Park Upland has similar ecosystems. Wherein, they may have similar elevations, soil types, sun/shade exposure, and slope aspects.
B). The two communities that are the most dissimilar are Saylorville and Prospect Park Floodplain. There is 1.3% similarity between Saylorville and Prospect Park Floodplain (Table 4). This suggest that Saylorville and Prospect Park Floodplain have dissimilar ecosystems. Wherein, the proximity to a body of water that frequently floods, soil-water drainage, soil type, landscape formation and slope aspects are likely to be different in these two areas …show more content…
A). The Upland region of Prospect Park had a greater dead component of trees as determined by a density score of 120 individuals and a basal area of 0.985882. The density of dead trees at the Upland region was almost 4 times greater than the Floodplain region and basal areas were roughly 52% greater in the Upland region compared to the Floodplain. There are many reasons for why this is the case, including disease outbreak or multiple years of poor conditions. For example, the upland region may have experienced a disease outbreak, particularly in the Green ash trees, due to do infestations of root rot, pests, or fungus. The disease may have quickly spread and effected many trees in the upland region, but not in the floodplain region. Furthermore, several years of harsh climatic conditions could have caused for ‘weaker’ trees to die due to the fact that they were not as well adapted to survive difficult …show more content…
Old growth is a term used in forest community ecology to convey a very late successional stage, where the dominant tree species in the location has attained a very old age. Ecologically, old growth forest is very important, therefore, measurements and indexes should be used to reflect the value these habitats hold. I suggest that an old-growth habitat index be used to reflect the “old-growth quality” of the upland and floodplain regions in Prospect Park. Most “old-growth” indices capture multiple qualities of the trees such as trees with dbh’s of over 100cm, diversity of tree sizes, standing dead trees greater than 50cm dbh and larger than 15 m. These three elements are readily available in forest inventory data sets and are easily calculated in the field; however, height was not calculated for this data set. Therefore, using a comparison of the number of snags of Sycamores and Silver Maples in the Floodplain data and Red and White Oaks in the Upland data, which were the most dominate species in the respective sites, a index can be created. Snags are just as vital as live trees and data was collected on dead trees in each site. Snags made up approximately 3.0% and 1.02% at the Upland and Floodplain sites respectively. A higher percentage of snags, and especially snags with large dbh’s, indicate old growth is increasing. Therefore, from this index it would appear that Prospect Park Upland old growth is increasing. Ecologically this may suggest that there have been
B). The two communities that are the most dissimilar are Saylorville and Prospect Park Floodplain. There is 1.3% similarity between Saylorville and Prospect Park Floodplain (Table 4). This suggest that Saylorville and Prospect Park Floodplain have dissimilar ecosystems. Wherein, the proximity to a body of water that frequently floods, soil-water drainage, soil type, landscape formation and slope aspects are likely to be different in these two areas …show more content…
A). The Upland region of Prospect Park had a greater dead component of trees as determined by a density score of 120 individuals and a basal area of 0.985882. The density of dead trees at the Upland region was almost 4 times greater than the Floodplain region and basal areas were roughly 52% greater in the Upland region compared to the Floodplain. There are many reasons for why this is the case, including disease outbreak or multiple years of poor conditions. For example, the upland region may have experienced a disease outbreak, particularly in the Green ash trees, due to do infestations of root rot, pests, or fungus. The disease may have quickly spread and effected many trees in the upland region, but not in the floodplain region. Furthermore, several years of harsh climatic conditions could have caused for ‘weaker’ trees to die due to the fact that they were not as well adapted to survive difficult …show more content…
Old growth is a term used in forest community ecology to convey a very late successional stage, where the dominant tree species in the location has attained a very old age. Ecologically, old growth forest is very important, therefore, measurements and indexes should be used to reflect the value these habitats hold. I suggest that an old-growth habitat index be used to reflect the “old-growth quality” of the upland and floodplain regions in Prospect Park. Most “old-growth” indices capture multiple qualities of the trees such as trees with dbh’s of over 100cm, diversity of tree sizes, standing dead trees greater than 50cm dbh and larger than 15 m. These three elements are readily available in forest inventory data sets and are easily calculated in the field; however, height was not calculated for this data set. Therefore, using a comparison of the number of snags of Sycamores and Silver Maples in the Floodplain data and Red and White Oaks in the Upland data, which were the most dominate species in the respective sites, a index can be created. Snags are just as vital as live trees and data was collected on dead trees in each site. Snags made up approximately 3.0% and 1.02% at the Upland and Floodplain sites respectively. A higher percentage of snags, and especially snags with large dbh’s, indicate old growth is increasing. Therefore, from this index it would appear that Prospect Park Upland old growth is increasing. Ecologically this may suggest that there have been