Why do we care about boreal peatlands at their southern range limits?
A peatland at its southern range limits means that it cannot survive any further south. Any climatic changes in this southern range can influence peatlands and predict what may happen to them as they move more north.
At their southern range limits, boreal peatlands are extremely important resources for understanding biological responses to climate change.
Biodiversity of peatlands are threatened by invasion of woody species and colonization of temperate tree species linked to human-caused climatic changes.
Shingle Shanty is a 23mi^2 remote tract of land located in the Adirondack Park, so it is protected by the Forever Wild conservation easement.
This land contains 2000 acres of boreal wetlands, 9 lakes and ponds, and more than 12,500 acres of northern/successional northern hardwood forests.
This land contains 2000 acres of boreal wetlands, 9 lakes and ponds, and more than 12,500 acres of northern/successional northern hardwood forests.
The boreal peatland in this research project is home to disjunct species that are also at their southern range limits, including the threatened spruce grouse.
What we did
Sampled forest structure in 6 plots; open and forested large, medium and small bogs. Medium and large bog data taken in Sept 2022, small bog data taken in Dec 2022. Tree species counts taken 5, 10, 15m away from water logger (plot center). Took DBH and organized into species counts and DBH classes.
Water logger tracks temperature and water table level every day. Daily water table variance, precipitation, and temperature have been calculated for every day from 6/16/22 to 10/21/22. For this project, we only look at September 2022 data.
Data put into excel, ET calculated, then put into R for analysis and graphing.
