Modeling Age Structure, Abundance, and Distribution of Maple Species on Campus
Date
2017-06-27
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Abstract
Norway maple (Acer platanoides), one of the most abundant invasive trees in
Massachusetts, is often associated with reduced native forest diversity. To shed
light on the effects of Norway maple on sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and red
maple (Acer rubrum) - local native maple species - I conducted a study on the
Mount Holyoke campus. In three sites, I recorded tree species and diameter,
average canopy cover, and soil moisture. With multivariate regression, I analyzed
relationships between abiotic variables and maple species and any interaction
effects among maple species. To explore the population and community
consequences of small changes in survival and growth, I attempted to construct
population projection matrix models for each maple species.
Environmental conditions appear to affect recruitment and growth of each
maple species with the most overlap in sugar and red maples. The size
distributions suggest that red maple may originally have been dominant but is
experiencing replacement by sugar maple. Although both sugar and Norway
maples are increasing, there are indications that Norway maple may negatively
affect sugar maples and could replace it in the long term.
Long-term data are highly desirable for matrix models to confirm the interaction and replacement
dynamics among the maple species.
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Keywords
invasive species, maple trees, modeling