After this tables were made to show the composition of the current forest. Then
we added and multiplied the numbers from table 3 with the numbers form table 5 and got
the forest will look like after canopy trees have been succeeded four times. My group also had to test the hypothesis that there is no relationship between the DBH of a canopy tree and the DBH of the most likely successor for that tree. The procedure for this lab can be found in the laboratory manual (BI 101: General Biology Laboratory Manual for Majors, Department of Biology, Fall 2003).
Results and Conclusions
I find the results of the lab interesting. In table 1 is all the data all three groups of
was put together. This table shows which successor trees are most likely going to take the place of a canopy tree that died. Table 2 shows the canopy replacement. It shows how many times a certain tree will success a certain canopy tree. For example a beech tree will success other beech trees twice, hybrid oaks once, red maples twice, sugar maples four times, sweet birches once, and yellow birch and eastern hemlock no times. Table 3 is the successor transition matrix. It shows the percentage of the trees that will become successors. It is the basis for all the other calculations that will be made to see which type of tree will be in the climax community after the existing canopy trees die. Table 4A shows what the forest will look like when the initial canopy trees die and their successors take their place. Table 4B shows what the forest will look like when the trees from Table 4A die. Table 4C shows what the forest will look like when the trees form Table 4B die. Table 5 shows the forest canopy succession. It shows what the forest will be compromised of when each different round canopy trees die. Figure 1 shows that there is no relationship between the DBH of a canopy tree and the DBH of the most likely successor for that tree.
According to Table 5 after the initial canopy trees died the forest will be mainly red maple then sweet birch, beech, and sugar maple. The hybrid oak trees are all gone except for one and yellow birch stayed fairly constant while eastern hemlock nearly doubled. After round one the dominating species of tree is still red maple, beech stayed constant but sugar maple, sweet birch and eastern hemlock decreased, yellow birch had an increase and the hybrid oaks are nearly extinct. After round two red maple still dominates and beech, yellow birch, sweet birch, eastern hemlock and sugar maple remain fairly constant while the hybrid oaks are still close to extinction. After round three the dominant species is still red maple, the hybrid oak is still on the brink of extinction, and beech, yellow birch, sweet birch, eastern hemlock, and sugar maple still remain constant. The initial forest is different form the forest in round four because the dominant species in the forest is no longer hybrid oak but red maple, sweet birch and eastern hemlock went increased, beech and yellow birch remained fairly constant, and sugar maple decreased. Shade tolerance also played an important role in the forest composition. Sugar maple, beech, and red maple are all shade tolerant which means that they have a slow growth rate, large reserves, a long life span, and low mortality rate. This shows why red maple will become the dominant species in Sleeping Giant. The hybrid oaks and the sweet and yellow birch trees are midtolerant which means the have moderate growth, some reserves, a medium life span, a moderate mortality rate. This should mean that the oak trees should not go extinct but in just so happens they do. None of the trees are shade intolerant because they would have no chance of growing with no sunlight. There will be forest like the one predicted in round four of our succession because as stated before red maple trees are shade tolerant and can wait years for a canopy tree to die before it can grow. This forest is not currently a climax community but after the fourth round of succession it is because of the red maple trees. Global warming in Connecticut can affect the succession of these trees because if the climate gets too hot and the forest catches on fire the dominate species of tree will change. The trees that are shade intolerant will grow and they will become the new canopy trees and the dominant species.
In Figure we were testing the hypothesis that there is no relationship between the DBH of a canopy tree and the DBH of the most likely successor for that tree. The results of the regression show that the P-value was greater than 0.05. Our P-value was 0.89. This means that that our hypothesis was accepted.
Discussion
Sleeping Giant got its name from the Native Americans who called the Giant Hobbomock. He was evil sprit who became angry and stomped his foot which changed the course of the Connecticut River. A good spirit called Kietan put a spell on Hobbomock which caused him to sleep forever and causing no further damage. In 1735 Joel Munson began to build a dam on the Mill River. After this was done people began to settle in Mount Carmel.
This project was done to find the successors of the existing canopy trees and to predict what the forest will look like in the future. The result of this project is that red maple will be the next dominant species of tree that will be in Sleepy Giant. There are many errors that can occur with this project. Some of them are that we (the students) did not go to the right place because there was a ditch or because all the trees in that area were dead. When we looked in the manual for which directions to go to if the tree that was there was dead we just went to the closet one we saw. If we identified al the trees in certain area and were still not done we just moved to another area and continued from there. If the successor tree was too far away from the canopy tree we measured as far as we could and then estimated the rest of the distance. These are just few errors. The forest that was predicted after four rounds of succession is different from the initial forest because the initial forest is mainly made of hybrid oak trees and our predicted forest is mainly made of red maple with hybrid almost extinct. Because the forest is predicted to change there are other forests like the one predicted in this region. The forest we initially started is not a climax community but after the resulting forest will be. The initial forest is not a climax community because fires occur and prevent it. Also global warming in Connecticut can affect the succession of in the forest. It can do this because of the increase in temperature and carbon dioxide.
Work Cited
Department of Biology. 2003. Bi 101: General Biology Laboratory Manual for Majors.
Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, 115pp.
History of Sleeping Giant:
Global warming:
Global warming:
The Succession of the Canopy of Sleeping Giant
Tasheena Brown
Emily Rodriguez
Biology Lab 101
Section: F
