Ecological Foundations Earth Partnership for Schools Southeast Michigan Institute Suzan Campbell

1. Ecological Foundations Earth Partnership for Schools Southeast Michigan Institute Suzan Campbell Oakland County n 2009

2. overview . . . • Overview: • Ecology 101 • Landforms • Soils • Regional Landscape Ecosystems • Natural Communities • Internet Resources Activity • Ecosystem Management

3. ecology 101 . . . Ecosystems Ecological Society of America (Christenson et al., 1996) A spatially explicit unit of the Earth that includes all the organisms, along with all the components of the abiotic environment within its boundaries.

4. ecology 101 . . . • More than biotic/abiotic components - • Ecosystems include: • processes • functions • interactions

5. ecology 101 . . . • Energy cycle • all* energy for life comes from the sun • plants capture this energy • animals utilize this captured energy from plants • energy flow is one way (heat lost) Diagram here

6. ecology 101 . . . Food webs

7. ecology 101 . . . • Water cycle • earth’s supply of water is fixed • stored in aquifers, glaciers, plants • land cover affects: • infiltration • runoff rates • erosion • flood risk

8. ecology 101 . . . Nitrogen cycle plants can’t use nitrogen in its most abundant form (N2) bacteria and lightning convert it to a useable form (NH4) human activities affect nitrogen’s form, impact in the environment nitrogen is only one of many nutrient cycles

9. ecology 101 . . . Don’t forget the invisible !!! soils provide mostOf nutrients needed for plant growth major player in water, nutrient cycles stores water eroded rock, nutrients, decaying organic matter, water, air, billionsof living organisms

10. ecology 101 . . . Carrying capacity: maximum pop. size of a particular species that a given habitat can support over a given time period

11. ecology 101 . . . This applies to us, too!!!

12. ecology 101 . . . • Whole ecosystems have limits too: • need some number of producers, consumers, and decomposers to function • must maintain important natural processes and interdependencies • no one knows all the limits • no one knows which species count • We can try to mimic ecosystems that work . . . . . . both native and cultural

13. ecology 101 . . . Succession The orderly and predictable replacement of plants and animals over time The changes are different in different physical settings and under different disturbance regimes.

14. ecology 101 . . . • Tolerance • “The engine of forest succession is fueled by the relative tolerance of trees to competitive conditions.” • Competitive variables: • light • moisture • nutrients • oxygen • space • disturbance Tolerance to low light levels is critical on mesic sites!

15. ecology 101 . . . Shade tolerance IntolerantTolerant Paper birch Black cherry Yellow birch Basswood Flowering dogwood Aspens Tuliptree Silver maple Red maple Hophornbeam Cottonwood Sycamore White oak Black spruce Beech Pin cherry Black oak Red oak White spruce Sugar maple Tamarack Red ash Hickories Jack Pine Sassafras White ash Red pine Elms Red cedar White pine

16. ecology 101 . . . • Gap-phase dynamics • In communities of shade-tolerant species, young trees can thrive in the understory until a gap occurs in the canopy • Sugar maple produces prolific seedlings • Beech bends to capture light • Sugar maple and beech may not be as competitive in all situations (frequent disturbance, low nutrient, oxygen, etc.)

17. ecology 101 . . . Natural disturbances:

18. ecology 101 . . . Disturbance-adapted communities Fire: Grasslands, barrens, oak-hickory forest, pine forests Flooding: Floodplain forest, swamps, wet meadows, prairies (human) Managed landscapes: Agricultural fields, timber stands, sprawl & urban decay. . .

19. your landscape context . . . • Think about your local natural landscape:: • what does it look like? • what are its boundaries? • what plants grow there? • what animals live there? • why has this combination of plants, animals, soils, waterways and landforms ended up together in this space?

20. landforms . . . Michigan’s landscape was shaped by glaciers

21. landforms . . . 14,500 years ago . . . . . . glaciers covered most of the state Interlobate

22. landforms . . . Enormous volumes of meltwater sorted sand and gravel Outwash

23. landforms . . . Where the ice was stagnant and melting in large chunks, kames and eskers were deposited Kame Esker

24. landforms . . . Sometime ice chunks broke off and were buried in debris - when they melted they formed kettles, a kind of depression Kettles

25. landforms . . . Where they paused, moraines were deposited . . . as they melted, lakes formed

26. landforms . . . End moraines

27. landforms . . . End moraines

28. landforms . . . Lake deposits

29. landforms . . . Lake deposits

30. landforms . . . What they left behind . . . Moraines - long ranges of hills that trace the original glacial lobes Outwash plains & ice contact features - flat plains, kettles, kames & eskers Lakeplains - low flat lands with beach ridges

31. soils . . .

32. soils . . .

33. soils . . . Drift:material that has been moved by a glacier Till:unsorted sediments deposited directly by glaciers Stratified drift:sediments that have been sorted by glacial meltwater (outwash, ice contact features)

34. soils . . . • Moraines: unsorted (till) • Ranges of hill, soils with mixed particle sizes, often with good water retention, drier if materials are coarser, nutrient-rich, include silts and clays • Support hardwood forests • Outwash: sorted sands and gravels • Flat or undulating lands with coarse texture soils, nutrient poor, droughty, fire-prone, can be poorly drained depending on how thick they are and what lies below. • Support grasslands, savannas, oak and pine forests • Ice contact features: sorted sands and gravels • Conical hills (kames) or long, linear hills (eskers) • Dry oak and/or pine forest, hillside prairie

35. soils . . . • Kettles: ice block depressions • Silts and clays with poor drainage • Lakes, bogs, marshes, swamps • Lakeplain: bottom of meltwater lakes • Silty clays and clays • Sandy beach ridges overlying clay • Support hardwood swamps, wet prairies, coastal wetlands on clay, forests, savanna and drier prairie on ridges • Bedrock: vary by type of rock • Harsh conditions • Sparse vegetation

36. landscape ecosystems . . . • Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin: A Working Map and Classification (Dennis A. Albert) . . . the landscape is conceived here as a series of ecosystems, large and small, nested within one another in a hierarchy of spatial sizes. • Available online • Interactive map interface http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/habitat/rlandscp.htm

37. landscape ecosystems . . . • Sections:based on long-term climate records, physiography • Section IX. Northern Continental M, W & M • continental influenced climate • extremely cold in winter • lake effect precipitation along Lake Superior • Section VIII. Northern Lake Influenced Upper M & W • lake moderated temperatures • lake effect precipitation along Lake Superior • Section VII. Northern Lake Influenced Lower Michigan • lake moderated temperatures • lake effect snow near shorelines • interior has greatest weather extremes • Section VI. Southern Lower Michigan • longest growing season • lake moderated temperatures • more warm humid air/less cold dry air * * physiography – form of the land and parent material

38. landscape ecosystems . . . • Sections:based on long-term climate records, physiography • Section IX. Northern Continental M, W & M • continental influenced climate • extremely cold in winter • lake effect precipitation along Lake Superior • Section VIII. Northern Lake Influenced Upper M & W • lake moderated temperatures • lake effect precipitation along Lake Superior • Section VII. Northern Lake Influenced Lower Michigan • lake moderated temperatures • lake effect snow near shorelines • interior has greatest weather extremes • Section VI. Southern Lower Michigan • longest growing season • lake moderated temperatures • more warm humid air/less cold dry air * * physiography – form of the land and parent material

39. landscape ecosystems . . . Sub-sections & sub-subsections:based on long-term climate records, physiography Section VI. Southern Lower Michigan Sub-section VI.1. Washtenaw *

40. landscape ecosystems . . . • Sub-subsections: • based on physiography (land form/parent material) - because it controls fluxes of radiation and moisture and thereby strongly determines the pattern of soil, microclimate, and vegetation. • Section VI. Southern Lower Michigan • Sub-section VI.1. Washtenaw • Sub-sub-section VI.1.1 Maumee Lakeplain • Sub-sub-section VI.1.2 Ann Arbor Moraines • Sub-sub-section VI.1.3 Jackson Interlobate

41. thinking locally . . . Natural communities • Background so far: • natural process - disturbances • landform • soil • climate • We’ll be adding • biota

42. thinking locally . . . • Natural communities • recurrent interacting assemblage of climate, landform, soil, native plants, animals, and dynamic processes at a local scale

43. thinking locally . . . • Natural communities • recurrent interacting assemblage of climate, landform, soil, native plants, animals, and dynamic processes at a local scale • identified by dominant vegetation

44. natural communities . . . • In a highly altered landscape: • How do we know which assemblages of • climate, • landform, • soil, • plants & animals • dynamic processes • are natural ?

45. natural communities . . . • Community types • forest • grassland and savanna • open wetlands • “primary” communities

46. natural communities . . . • Presettlement vegetation map • (Comer et al., 1995) • based on surveyors records from the 1800s • supplemented by years of field work by MNFI staff, historic literature and museum records • a “best guess” – not infallible, but still very useful

47. circa 1800 vegetation . . .

48. circa 1800 vegetation . . . Northern coniferous forest Eastern deciduous forest

49. circa 1800 vegetation . . . northern hardwoods, boreal forest, pine forests, conifer swamps northern hardwoods, peatlands, alvar, cedar swamps cedar swamps northern hardwoods pine barrens pine forests oak - pine barrens beech maple forests oak hickory forests savannas, prairies

50. natural communities . . . Michigan’s natural communities: