PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 2: Forest Ecology
Monday, August 8, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
The effect of historical land use on vegetation in woodlots of Eastern Ontario, Canada.
Brown, Carissa1, Boutin, Celine2, 1 Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Biology, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada2 National Wildlife Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
ABSTRACT- Eastern Ontario, Canada, once dominated by mixed deciduous forest cover and a variety of wetlands, has become a fragmented agricultural landscape. The remaining forest cover has primarily taken the form of small, privately owned woodlots. Vegetation in these woodlots has been influenced by many factors, e.g., edge effects, isolation, connectivity and size. One not well-understood factor is the influence of past land use on current biodiversity patterns. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of land use history on current vegetation biodiversity, and to understand how that knowledge can aid conservation efforts in Eastern Ontario. Woodlots (n=30) in the Ottawa region were selected for study based on several parameters including size, adjacency to intense agriculture, accessibility, and soil type. The current vascular plant abundance was surveyed using several transects throughout the sites. Past land use was determined by examining historical aerial photographs, field observations, and interviewing landowners. Additionally, trees were cored to age the stand and to investigate the sequence of tree establishment on the site. Preliminary results, using a Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA), indicated that woodlots separate based on a disturbance gradient and a moisture gradient. The disturbance gradient distinguished older, richer woodlots from younger or more recently disturbed woodlots, which have more introduced species. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to investigate the relationship between land use history and species richness while controlling for the effect of area. While disturbance history has an effect on species distribution in the DCA, no significant relationship has been found, thus far, between historical land use and overall species richness. However, a relationship between the number of introduced species and past land use was uncovered.
Key words: land use history, agroforested landscape, forest plant diversity, Ontario, Canada