A comparative study of diversity in three forest ecosystems in North East Ohio. (Pre-College Poster Session 03:00 PM).

Webster, Rowan M. ; McGarrigle, Mara J. ; Slavick, Makella 等

BOARD 15

We conducted an all-taxon species inventory in three forest ecosystems that differed in stand age. We studied an old-growth beech-maple forest and a 20 year old maple forest at the J.H. Barrow Field Station, Hiram Township, Portage Co. and a 60 year maple forest at Hershey Montessori Farm School, Huntsburg, Geauga Co. We created nine randomly placed 5 by 5 meters plots, with three replicate plots in each forest. The studies were conducted between 23 September 2002 and 4 November 2002. At each visit, we would visually examine the plots for any vertebrates, Invertebrates, or fruiting fungi. We randomly sampled for herbaceous plants using three replicate one-meter square quadrats in each plots. To sample forest-floor Invertebrates we set up three replicate pitfall traps in each plot. To sample the leaf-litter community we took three 573.0 [cm.sup.2] replicate leaf litter samples per plot, and used a Berlese funnel to extract all invertebrates. We conducted point count surveys for birds in the Hiram plots. This consisted of four individuals scanning the forest in and around each plot for 10 minutes on the 30th of September. We identified and measured the DBH of all the trees in our plots. We also identified and counted all standing woody vegetation taller than breast height and < 3 cm dbh. Preliminary analyses indicate that the old-growth forest at the J. H. Barrow Field Station has the highest species richness over all.

ROWAN 114. WEBSTER (1) FLAMESTORM2000@YAHOO.COM, MARA J. McGARRIGLE (1), MAKELLA SLAVICK, AMANDA A. SMITH (1), ABE J. HAAS (1), TRISTAN T. QUIGLEY (1), FRANCESCA, S. LUNARDI (1), LIZ LOCKEMER (1), SAMUEL D. MARSHALL (2) MARSHALLSD@HIRAM.EDU, AND RACHEL McKINNEY (1), (1) HERSHEY MONTESSORI FARM SCHOOL, 11530 PROUTY RD, HUNTSBURG OH 44046, (2) J.H. BARROW FIELD STATION, HIRAM COLLEGE