Keith Grabner, Janice Albers and Matthew Struckhoff were the U.S. Geological Survey ecologists who researched which plant species were present at the city-owned floodplain north of the Wabash River. The flooding caused the research done on Tuesday and Wednesday to be significantly cut back.
The city-owned floodplain north of the Wabash River is living up to its title, as much of the area is submerged. However, that did not stop a three-person team from the U.S. Geological Survey from studying the plant life there this week.
The study is a part of a larger, ongoing one conducted by the USGS to monitor the progress of the reforestation of the area that went from 2000 to 2009. It’s part of a larger effort to determine what reforestation tactics are successful, and what reforestation monitoring techniques provide the most accurate information.
The study has been going on throughout the summer, with different aspects of the ecosystem being studied. Mammal and bird specialists arrived in June to determine whether or not native species are making the area home.
The plant study was conducted by Matthew Struckhoff, Janice Albers and Keith Grabner all USGS ecologists based out of Missouri. The original plan was to investigate approximately a dozen 20 by 20 meter areas, and the plant life they contained. Instead, they looked at four areas with those dimensions – two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday.
The plan is for further research to be attempted July 24.
Similar studies are being carried out in New Haven and Hamilton. However, the New Haven site was too flooded for any work to be done, so the team traveled to Wells County sooner than anticipated.
Each of the plots were selected at random in various sections of land throughout the floodplain. The plot was taped off with a measuring tape; with still more tape dividing it into quarters.
The herbaceous vegetation of each of the quarters was identified, and then the trees that were in the area were measured from their distance to the center of the plot. Struckhoff explained that they are able to put those measurements into an equation that allows them to estimate density.
“We see a lot of species that come into abandoned agricultural fields like this,” Struckhoff said. He explained that not everything that they had found was planted there in the reforestation process, giving goldenrod as an example.
“One of the things about these floods is that they introduce variation into the environmental conditions to which these species are responding,” Stuckhoff said. “You start to see differences in how planted trees and other species are surviving.”
He said that this can cause a more “varied landscape” and noted that this variation is a positive change.
“All of these species have evolved to deal with these kinds of environmental processes,” Albers said. “It’s a good thing for these inhabitants; it’s not a bad thing.”
© 2024 Bluffton News-Banner