Acadia National Park island forests: 25 years of change and stability
Gurvich D, Fisichelli NA, Mittelhauser GH, Connery JH, Cole-Will R. 2018. Acadia National Park island forests: 25 years of change and stability. Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park
From the abstract: "The islands managed by Acadia National Park in the Gulf of Maine provide critical habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, including disjunct populations of alpine and arctic plant species and nesting seabirds extremely vulnerable to climate change. During 1992 and 1993, the National Park Service, with help from Earthwatch volunteers inventoried biota on 10 islands. With continuing climate change, including increased extreme precipitation events, warming temperatures, and sea level rise, updating the parks management plans to address the projected impact of climate change on the vulnerable natural resources of these islands is more important than ever. To provide updated information on island dynamics, trajectory of forest change, important environmental drivers, and potential implications for plant and animal species, we resampled the 33 permanent historical forest plots established on 8 islands during the early 1990s. Field crews of Schoodic Institute staff, National Park Service managers, and Earthwatch volunteers resampled the historical plots, including tree, sapling, seedling, and shrub layers. Sampling concluded in September 2018 and here we present preliminary analyses comparing current and historical island forest vegetation."
- Type
- Poster
- Authors
- Gurvich, Diana; Fisichelli, Nicholas; Mittelhauser, Glen; Connery, Judy; Cole-Will, Rebecca
- Date of Issue
- 2018-10-20
- Publisher
- Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park
- Units
- ACAD
- Keywords
- Education, forest, forest communities, forest structure, islands, monitoring, Research & Studies