The drive to survive: A limited study of the plant abundance and diversity of Dixie’s Pioneer Park. Presented by: Leigh Atwell Chancen Hall Solomon Jensen Michelle Nelson

Where and What Red Hills parkway 52 Acres Access to Boy Scout Cave, Red cliffs desert reserve, picnic areas, and hiking trails.

Our Study Areas Below the CliffsAbove the Cliffs

Human activity affects plant life.

Hypothesis 1 The lower area has more Pioneer species. Broom SnakeweedRussian Thistle

Hypotheses 2. The lower area has less evenness 3. The lower area has more richness. 4. The lower area has less overall density. 5. There is more coverage in the upper area.

Hypothesis 6 Desert Ratany It is more abundant in the upper area. Picture???

Blackbrush It is more abundant in the upper area.

Methods and Materials

Materials 5 meter string with two marker pegs attached at the end (10 meter diameter) Plant identification guide Data sheets and pencil(quadrant and transect) 30 meter measuring tape

Methods-Quadrant Have three or four people in a group Two areas of interest: Below the cliffs and above the cliffs at Pioneer Park. Take the 5 meter string and plant one of the ends into the ground. Have a person take the other end and trace a 10 meter diameter circle around the middle peg. As you walk around the middle, have the third person identify which plants are being crossed by the string and how many individual plants. The fourth person will record what plants are being crossed and how many are there. Total plot samples will be 10 per interest area so a total of all together will be 20 plot samples.

Transect Method 30 meter measuring tape and again two areas of interest. Try to do around the same plots as the Quadrant ones. It will only be a straight line with a 1 cm strip wide along one side of the tape. Only 5 transects will be measured. Divide up the measuring tape into 6 interval, so 5 meters long. This will help determine the frequency of plants. Record whether a species is there in each interval. Whatever plants the tape touches, overlies, or underlies record the plant and how far along it is in its interval.

Calculations Quadrant Frequency: number of plots in which species occurs/total number of plots Abundance: number of plants of a particular species/total number of plants x 100 Density: Number of plants of a particular species/total area sampled Circle’s area: pie*(radius)^2 = 78.5m^2 Transect Frequency: Number of intervals in which species is present/total number of intervals Relative Density: total number of individuals of a species/total number of individuals of all species x 100 Cover: total intercept length of a species/total length of transects x 100 Relative cover: total intercept length of species/total intercept length of all species x 100

Results

Pioneer Species Results Snakeweed quad lower: 51.67% Snakeweed quad upper: 19.46% Russian thistle quad lower: 3.65% Russian thistle quad upper: 0.00% Snakeweed line lower: / m Snakeweed line upper: / m Russian thistle lower: / m Russian thistle upper: / m

Results continued Lower AreaUpper Area Line Transect Top 5 Quadrant

Discussion

Pioneer Species Totals of Snakeweed and Russian Thistle Found in 10 quadrants Lower Area Snakeweed Upper Area – 50 Snakeweed Lower Area - 12 Russian Thistle Upper Area – 0 Russian Thistle

Evenness Lower AreaUpper Area

Richness Lower Area – 22 SpeciesUpper Area – 18 Species No! We’re not talking about buried treasure.

Overall Density Quadrant and Line transect Lower Area – 370 Plants total Upper Area – 319 Plants total

Overall Coverage All species using Line Transect Lower Area Meters of 180 Meters studied or 12.9% Coverage Upper Area – Meters of 180 Meters studied or 18.8% Coverage

Desert Ratany Lower Area – 2 Upper Area – 5

Blackbrush 3 in Lower Area 38 in Upper Area

Stepping on plants is Not Cool!