Post-Grant Reports

Title

The Effect of Urbanization on Breeding Birds, Seedling Growth and Survivorship, and Soil Nitrogen and Carbon

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

3-5-2015

Disciplines

Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Forest Biology | Forest Sciences | Soil Science

Abstract

The second year of bird counts at all my sites in Forest Park was completed; after one additional year, I will be able to determine trends in population numbers over a 20-year time period. The 10-year trends showed interesting findings; I look forward to seeing whether those observed trends have continued into the subsequent decade. The limited study of seedling mortality and growth in the park provided evidence that (1) the tags I put on the seedlings in the summer of 2013 were still intact in 2014 and (2) that tree recruitment (as indicated by the number of new seedlings and saplings) in Forest Park continues to be depressed both in terms of the number of new seedlings and continued high mortality rate of existing seedlings. This became very apparent with the three new control sites, one of which had more seedlings than combined total for the rest of my 25 sites in Forest Park. The final data has yet to be fully analyzed statistically, but I expect interesting significant results.

The soil data has yet to be collected due to issues with my contact at PSU. I am hopeful that we will be able to get the samples analyzed for total nitrogen and carbon using the elemental analyzer this month. The results will be exceptionally interesting (regardless of the actual findings) and will provide us with valuable information.

Comments

This research was conducted as part of a Linfield College Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Grant in 2014, funded by the Office of Academic Affairs.

Student collaborators were Robin Fahy and Wes Hanson.

  Contact Author

Share

COinS