Riparian Ecology Summary

Seeds and plant fragments are blown onto trees at random through wind dispersal or placement by animals, but Tillandsia's success results from its ability to take advantage of its unique aerial niche. Hanging in the canopy, an ecosystem nutrient cycle is established in forests with epiphytes. During precipitation, there is stemflow (in which rain is caught by the leaves or branches and transferred along the trunk into the ground) and throughfall (which passes over leaves and branches, onto epiphytes, spilling excess water onto the ground) (Lowman and Rinker, 2004). The surface of Spanish moss is covered with tiny scales, allowing for the entrapment of water. When the tissues of Spanish moss plump up after a rain, the moss appears green; yet as the water is used, it turns gray. Average water absorbency for laboratory treated T. usneoides is approximately 800% of its dry weight (Van Stan, II, 2015). Spanish moss keeps the host tree's branches cool and moist due to its ability to absorb and hold water. Its canopy cover increases the leaching of Na+, Cl- , PO4 3- and SO4 2- from the epiphyte to tree roots. Additionally, the presence of T. usneoides enhances NH4+ soil concentrations but diminishes throughfall NO3- (Rosier, et al. 2015). Canopy soils develop when epiphytes start to decompose, and they contain fewer metals due to the adsorptive quality of the bromeliad

Temperature influences the distribution of plants and this is another abiotic factor. In the Lions club tower I could feel the difference in temperature. Bottom at being cold and moist whereas the top is warm and dry. This is shown clearly on the average table. Temperatures such as snow or frost determines the distribution of plants as most plants cannot prevent freezing because of their tissues and this abiotic factor affects the plantae group. Other effects that could cause an establishment to particular plants due to temperature is the gemination of biennial plants, and this is during spring or summer known as vernalization. This is the cooling of seed in order to quickly adapt to the environment and the abiotic factors. As of the forest

The riparian buffer discussed in the fact pattern describe leaving a 50-foot buffer zone of natural land between both sides of all streams. The plaintiff, Roberta Smith, owns a 100-acre farm which has a stream flowing through it. Under the new riparian buffer regulation four of her 100 acres will be lost because the regulation will prevent her from growing any crops on this four-acre plot of land. The plaintiff argues that a regulatory taking has occurred and that she is entitled to compensation for her lost land. It is important to understand the distinction between eminent domain and a regulatory taking before going further. In Kelo and Village of Euclid eminent domain refers to situations where the government explicitly condemns private land for public use and justify the taking under the 5th

Vegetation Type: White spruce Douglas fir-lodgepole pine on old alluvial fans, White spruce-western red cedar on damp alluvial fan, white spruce on permanently water-logged soil, aspen-balsam poplar on moist alluvium

We found this red alder on March 26th 1806 along the Cowlitz river, in Washington. We have recently learnt that red alder is used for 'pulpwood, furniture, cabinet work and tool handles'. Indians would take red dye and make canoes and dye fishing nets. These trees would grow in North America along lots of rivers. The would was known to be extremely strong so you also make homes out of the bark

Riparian areas are locations of many communities that not many acknowledge as a primary needs or impactful regions. Growing up along a riverbed opened my eyes to the importance of a healthy riparian area and what happens to the surrounding habitat if the area is not maintained. Without necessary support, a riverbed collapses over time and creates a layer of sediment on the riverbed, this results in a loss of riverside habitat and the loss of niche to many water creatures. I witnessed this as a need along Wolf Creek in Lacombe and decided that someone must take the initiative, I was that person. To raise funds and awareness of my project I entered the Caring For Our Watersheds competition, I qualified in the top ten and placed sixth, earning $600 for the

However, the Dwight-Irwin soil has more of a deeper, moister quality. Benfield and Dwight-Irwin soils do allow for more species richness than other lower elevated ecosystems but due to the drier soils, Little Bluestem is still the most dominant plant recorded. The dominance of Little Bluestem extends down to the lowest boundaries of the ecosystem, indicating that the soil conditions do stay relatively consistent, despite the change in soil type. This allows “Little Bluestem” to again be the dominant plant species component. The drier qualities of the upper Benfield soil combine with the slightly moister qualities of the lower Dwight-Irwin soil to give the “Dry Mesic” classification. These soil moisture content qualities, the location of this ecosystem along side slopes, and the consistent dominance of the Little Bluestem plant species allows this ecosystem to be classified as Little Bluestem-Dry

This biome is home to a diverse collection of plants and animals in spite of the cold temperatures, slow decomposition rates, and moderate precipitation that is found there. For of those reasons, the animals and plants exhibit a wide variety of adaptations that allow them to survive the seasons of the boreal forest. The taiga biome, the largest land biome in the world, fills the definition of the winter

Our alternative hypothesis would suggest that moss and ivy have a competitive relationship. The Competitive Exclusion Principle states that no two species can coexist if they share the same niche. In our study, both ivy and moss grew at eye level on Big Leaf Maples, Spruces, Red Cedars, Alders, and Hemlocks. Although their shared location is only part of moss’s and ivy’s niches, moss’s growth is still restricted by ivy presence. Our alternative hypothesis suggests that ivy is a superior competitor. Because ivy grows faster than moss (Richards 2008) (Stenøien 2008), the ivy can more rapidly cover the circumference of trees, depriving the moss of sunlight and bark nutrients. Ivy could also have preemptive relationship towards moss. In preemption, ivy establishes its space on the trees and prevents other organisms like moss from using the space. Both of these competitive relationships shows that ivy impedes the moss from growing on the trees. The Although we have suggested

In 1984, Dwight Brown presented his research that looked at the various types of grass phytoliths. Brown was particularly interested in looking at the migration rates of particular species of grass. He felt that the rates could indicate weather conditions. Brown looked at three shape classes of grass phytoliths: bilobates, saddles and trapezoids (Brown 1984: #4, 345). From his studies, Brown concluded that fluctuations in the ratios of phytolith shapes could indicate shifts in the environment to which the phytoliths belonged (Brown 1984: #4, 345). He also concluded that it was

Abstract As the human population grows to unprecedented levels reducing our impact on water resources is of utmost importance. The significance of our effect on freshwater becomes much greater as more people are relying more on safe, sustainable water therefore; we must try to understand every component of our ecosystems. With increases in human population nutrient loading has increased in our waterways through fertilizer runoff of agricultural lands and through waste water treatment facility stream enrichment. Nutrient enrichment has been studied more with excessive loading from agriculture and also untreated waste water, but the effects of nutrient loading from modern waste treatment facilities is lack luster. Our designed experiment tested the effect of external nutrient input into a stream on rate of leaf litter decomposition in two water systems. The study consisted of a single species of leaf, Populus balsamifera, we determined leaf breakdown rates using percent leaf mass remaining over the eight week study. Also measured was the biomass of macroinvertebrates relative to the mass of the cottonwood leaves at three weeks. Our results showed a 2x greater leaf litter decomposition rate on Bozeman creek than the East Gallatin below the water reclamation facility and 4x greater rate than the East Gallatin above the water reclamation facility. Macroinvertebrate shredder numbers were the highest at the

The plant species consist of upland species and bottomland species. The upland species contains forests of different types of trees. In order to determine the bottomland species, we explored the two lakes. The two lake levels are generally low throughout the year causing floating-leaf and emergent plants to be dominant. I expected to find both, floating-leaf and emergent plants to dominate in the two lakes, as well as, dead decomposing plant material settling on the bottom of

The flower changes our ecosystem by the aggressive growth and dense thickets that exclude most native shrubs and herbs from establishing in our ecosystems.( “ Multiflora Rose” SHRUBS and SUBSHRUBS).

The deciduous forests of West Virginia, like all ecosystems, are diverse homes to numerous organisms interacting with each other. West Virginia University’s Core Arboretum provides a good representation of this diversity, providing a wide spectrum of interspecies interaction. For example, when the upper canopy of a forest grows its leaves it absorbs more sunlight, leaving the plants closer to the forest floor with about 2% of the emitted sunlight. To adapt to this, species will flower in a small window of time early in the spring season before the upper canopy becomes profuse. These species are called spring ephemerals. Some of the ephemeral species observed in the arboretum, such as the Viola pubescens, had not yet reached their window and did not contain a flower. Alternatively, species such as the Sangunaria Canadensis (Figure 1), had exceeded their window and completed its reproduction phase leaving no flower to be seen. While there are plenty of species within the arboretum worth mentioning, only a few will be reflected upon, starting with Sangunaria canadensis.

Gymnosperms (720 species in 65 genera) are ancient seed plants that include ginkgos (Division Ginkgophyta), cycads (Division Cycadophyta), conifers (Division Coniferophyta), and gnetophytes (Division Gnetophyta). The term gymnosperm derives from the