Vegetation Succession on Mount Etna - Essay Example

?GY296 Individual report (1400 word limit) N.B. THE REPORT IS ON VEGETATION SUCCESSION ON MOUNT ETNA, A STUDY PERSONALLY DONE, IS NOT A WRITE UP OF THE DAY. JUST NEED TO EDIT THE WRITTING STYLE AND MAKE SURE EVERYTHING FLOWS, AND MAKES SENSE.GRAPHS, MAPS AND PICTURES MAY NOT APPEAR, BUT DO NOT REMOVE MENTION OF THEM AND RESULTS The vegetation succession on lava flows is the major focus and research of this report. Undertaken on the 3rd day of activities, the aim was to go to different sites affected by volcanic eruptions from different time periods to see if vegetation succession patterns occurred. The results were archived by using a quadrat which covered around 1 meter distance in total, allowing us to see the biodiversity and the percentage cover of litter, bare ground, mosses, lichens, forbes, while recording vegetation height. Volcanic lava flows occurred in these areas and are referred to as primary succession. All organic matter and soil has disappeared, however, some of the sites visited have experienced secondary succession, as soil and organic matter grew in the area. One major goal was to see if the vegetation followed Gleason or Clements theory, where by vegetation succession occurs at random. Clements’ theory stated that the pioneering species change the environment, allowing new species to develop as they cannot develop in the pioneering conditions known as facilitation. The activity aimed to see if in the older environments, the pioneering species had allowed for new growth and, in the newer environments, what the pioneering species are. This is what is known as vegetation succession. Gleason’s view is supported by Whittaker in believing species respond to changes individually. Vegetation succession has 6 stages; nudation area left bare, migration-species arrive, Ecesis plant seeds establish themselves, competition-plants compete with one another for resources, reaction-established plants alter the environment, and stabilisation-equilibrium reached. This could be seen to an extent on older sites, rather than in the newer areas of volcanic ash, as the pioneering species such as lichens and mosses had a lower percentage of cover compared to forbes and grasses. However, it is hard to verify what stage it is in as we don’t know if any new species have or will occur in succession. With increased altitude comes decreased sunlight and increased precipitiation. Durbin (1981) has stated that areas within the region piedmontese have been replaced with commercial production. I don’t believe the areas we were in exhibited this as we visited only one part considered in regionee piedmontese. See handbook lit for this. Finlay 1968 and King 1973 stated that the regione boscara would ‘have been engulfed by lava flows’. This was evident at site number 2, from the 1910 and 1983 lava flows, as lava flows were predominant with bits of lichens and mosses growing. Which followed what Clements seems to suggest as; initial communities are dominated by mosses, then by more diverse species. ‘The soil of Sicily is for the most part remarkably rich and fertile, and consists of a great variety of earth’s’. page 12 (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3MsZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sicily+vegetation&source=bl&ots=smASoAa18i&sig=Kq7maeTAIMMQzqEax2HwbiHq_nE&hl=en&ei=GnaoTYCBLcio8AOW2Y2nBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tdLAbiExrHcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=fundamentals+of+biogeography&hl=en&ei=sl2cTZCUCdO08QPEh6DmBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false page 225 Within Etna there are 3 vegetation zones; the regione piedmontese (sea level-1000m) Site 1669 (Nicolosi), regione boscara (1000-2000m), (Sites 1910 and 1983) and regione deserta (>2000m). Clearing activity has led less natural successional communities and the development of maquis (schrubland vegetation) and garigue (sparse vegetation). (Chester 1985) Over time there should be a greater amount of vegetation and the objective of this activity aimed to see if, over time there was a greater diversity of plants. Trends showed that areas that had more recent volcanic activity, more lava deposits, and areas at higher relief, had less biodiversity and were predominantly bare ground, lichens and mosses. The four sites visited were Madonna di monpileri (1669), sites 2 and 3 from 1910 and 1983 and A random sampling method was used as we believed this would be able to get a greater diversity of seeing vegetation cover whereas stratified or systematic can be too specific. Certain environments have shown elements of I have included photographs of each sample site visited to show the biodiversity. I have used statistical analysis to show and I have used graphs showing the years the lava flows deposited representing different sites and the different types of vegetation. I have summarised all the data into a table acquiring averages for each species type. Year/ Site Bare (Average overall %) Litter lichens grasees forbes woody species 1669 (Site 1) 16.4 15.8 15.4 26 22.8 3.6 1792 (Site 4) 30.4 28.6 2 32 7 0 1910 (Site 2) 40.6 0.6 57.4 0 1 0.4 1983 (Site 3 89 3 7.6 0 0.4 0 The statistics show greater diversity the older the sites. I also included a scatter plot of vegetation height and age, as vegetation will likely have had better growth in the older sites due to lack of disruption, and being at an advanced stage of succession. Not all the biodiversity could be identified due to a limited amount of time at each site and because we needed around 5 samples per site, therefore only some of the samples were acquired. Overall the sites we visited seem to correspond to Clements theory of vegetation succession. Older sites affected by lava flows have more diversity compared to areas that were affected more recently. This cannot be applied to the whole area, as only certain parts of Sicily were visited and could be addressed by further research. Unfortunately only the wide species could be identified, which may limit the amount of information we have as some species can have many sub-species, e.g. mouse-ear is one species. Alday et al done a study on coal mines in Spain, to see vegetation succession and found that succession influenced by since restoration, and soil pH. http://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/InboundService.do?product=WOS&action=retrieve&SrcApp=360&UT=000286207100009&SID=V1EnMaaigNaBhhNeJBj&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&mode=FullRecord&customersID=SerialsSolutions&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Faccess.isiproducts.com%2Fcustom_images%2Fwok_failed_auth.html Dimopolous’ study on Aegean, a similar environment to Sicily due to volcanoes and climate, found that the age of lava substrate is among the most important and significant variables. However, later on studies suggest the formation of pioneer species not just based on the age of lava, but factors such as age of lava after eruption and chemical and physical properties of the soil. Suggesting the environment may be the reason for vegetation succession. http://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/InboundService.do?product=WOS&action=retrieve&SrcApp=360&UT=000278676700001&SID=V1EnMaaigNaBhhNeJBj&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&mode=FullRecord&customersID=SerialsSolutions&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Faccess.isiproducts.com%2Fcustom_images%2Fwok_failed_auth.html Another study from a glacial environment from Stephenson in Alaska showed there was a change from pioneer to late progression species due to glacial retreat from 1959 to 1986, which would support vegetation succession if there are no disruptions. This shows that different environments still have vegetation succession. http://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/InboundService.do?product=WOS&action=retrieve&SrcApp=360&UT=000239268300003&SID=V1EnMaaigNaBhhNeJBj&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&mode=FullRecord&customersID=SerialsSolutions&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Faccess.isiproducts.com%2Fcustom_images%2Fwok_failed_auth.html Grouping Information Using Turnkey Method comparing vegetation height year. N Mean Grouping 1792 25 13.50 A 1669 25 9.10 A B 1910 25 1.53 B 1983 25 0.96 B One-way ANOVA: 1669, 1792, 1910, 1983 Source DF SS MS F P Factor 3 2774 925 4.63 0.005 Error 96 19162 200 Total 99 21936 The p=value suggests that there is a difference between vegetation height and site age as the p-value is below 0.05. As we see there is a difference between the newer and older species although 1792 not the oldest has the largest vegetation height mean is unusual. But this could have been because of the samples taken at the sites. I have included graphs of bare ground, lichen %, and forbes to see if these change over time, as they represent the pioneer species, and newer species. These were taken from the table displayed. On the scatter plot there appears to be a relationship between age and bare ground, and age and forbes. Bare ground is higher in newly affected areas, and forbes are higher in the older affected areas. The box plot below shows the vegetation heights and gives a better indication of individual heights and the median and interquartile ranges. As species diversity increases over time, the graphs seem to agree with Clements’ view of vegetation succession. References John Hogg (1842). books.google.co.uk/books [online]. [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . Alday. J. G, R.H Marrs, C Ruiz-Martinez (2011). onlinelibrary.wiley.com [online]. [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . Dimopoulos. P, T. Raus, L. Mucina, I. Tsiripidis (2010). apps.isiknowledge.com [online]. [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . Stephenson. T.R, V. Van Ballenberghe. J.M Peek, J.G. MacCracken. (2006). apps.isiknowledge.com [online]. [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . W.E. Westman and R.K. Peet (No Date). www.springerlink.com [online]. [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . www.bookrags.com [online]. (No Date) [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . Chester et al (1985). www.sciencedirect.com [online]. [Accessed May 8, 2011]. Available from: . References Alday http://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/InboundService.do?product=WOS&action=retrieve&SrcApp=360&UT=000286207100009&SID=V1EnMaaigNaBhhNeJBj&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&mode=FullRecord&customersID=SerialsSolutions&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Faccess.isiproducts.com%2Fcustom_images%2Fwok_failed_auth.html Stephensonhttp://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/InboundService.do?product=WOS&action=retrieve&SrcApp=360&UT=000239268300003&SID=V1EnMaaigNaBhhNeJBj&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&mode=FullRecord&customersID=SerialsSolutions&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Faccess.isiproducts.com%2Fcustom_images%2Fwok_failed_auth.html (Accessed on 10th April 2011) http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3MsZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sicily+vegetation&source=bl&ots=smASoAa18i&sig=Kq7maeTAIMMQzqEax2HwbiHq_nE&hl=en&ei=GnaoTYCBLcio8AOW2Y2nBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false (Accessed on 10th April 2011) http://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/InboundService.do?product=WOS&action=retrieve&SrcApp=360&UT=000278676700001&SID=V1EnMaaigNaBhhNeJBj&Init=Yes&SrcAuth=SerialsSolutions&mode=FullRecord&customersID=SerialsSolutions&DestFail=http%3A%2F%2Faccess.isiproducts.com%2Fcustom_images%2Fwok_failed_auth.html (Accessed on 10th April 2011) Bellomo. S, A. Aiuppa , W. D’Alessendro and F. Parello. http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VCS-4NRT3B6-6&_user=128558&_coverDate=08%2F15%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000010278&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=128558&md5=416bc05e5467be44b1504030c8ce05c1&searchtype=a#bib27 Read More