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Vegetation Distribution Comparison of Water Canyon and Quemada Watersheds on Santa Rosa Island, California an Environmental Scie

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Vegetation Distribution Comparison of Water Canyon and Quemada Watersheds on Santa Rosa Island, California an Environmental Scie Vegetation Distribution Comparison of Water Canyon and Quemada Watersheds on Santa Rosa Island, California An Environmental Science and Resource Management Capstone Project By: Aimee L. Newell Advisor: Dr. Linda O’Hirok Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an Environmental Science and Resource Management Bachelors of Science degree from California State University Channel Islands Spring 2016 (May 16, 2016) Newell 2 Abstract Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, was heavily grazed by cattle (Bos taurua), sheep (Ovis aries), elk(Cervus elaphus), and other non-native ungulates for 154 years, which degraded the island’s vegetation and stream geomorphology (Rick 2014). In 1998, the livestock was removed, and in 2011 the remaining non-native game animals were removed (Rick 2014), which allowed recovery of the land to begin. This study evaluated two watersheds on the island, Water Canyon and Quemada. Quemada Watershed had a restoration project with native species plantings in 1998, while the Water Canyon Watershed recovered naturally without any additional restoration projects. This research compared the vegetation distribution between the two watersheds. The Water Canyon watershed was further subdivided into four regions and the middle section directly compared to the Quemada watershed, due to its similar proximity, topography, and geomorphology. I surveyed the riparian communities and the terraces, identifying plant species and performing species diversity metric studies, including the ratio of species richness to total abundance, species evenness and heterogeneity. No significant difference was found in the overall diversity metric studies between the Water Canyon and Quemada watersheds, but the specific categorical vegetation distributions varied among these two watersheds. There was no statically significant difference in the percent of bare ground for the two watersheds (p=0.585), but the low percentages of 2% for Quemada and 5% for Water Canyon coupled with the increases in vegetation and species richness indicate regrowth on the island since the removal of the grazers. This has led to increased stability of the stream channel and overall improvement in the functionality of the watershed. Keywords: Vegetation, Channel Islands, Water Canyon, Quemada, Soil, Erosion, Substrate, Terraces, Stream Channel, Grazing Newell 3 Introduction The earth has a growing human population, and in order to meet the demand for resources there needs to be an increase in food and material resource production (Vitousek et al 1997). However, the earth is a closed system and has a finite amount of resources (Nelson et al. 2003). Consequently, humans are causing negative ecological impacts to the Earth by altering its ecosystems and biodiversity in order to keep up with today’s society and its mass consumption of resources. In most cases, it is difficult to quantify the ecological impacts made to the environment by humans and even more difficult to determine how the land will recover. This project will act as a case study to examine the ecological impacts that 154 continuous years of ranching has had on the vegetation in and on the function of two watersheds on Santa Rosa Island, California. Santa Rosa Island Figure 1 Map of Channel Islands National Park Created by: Aimee Newell The Channel Islands National Park consists of five of eight islands off the coast of southern California (Schumann et al. 2014), including Santa Rosa Island (SRI) which is 44 kilometers off the mainland of California (Hofman and Rick 2014). Adjacent to SRI is San Miguel Island five kilometers to the west and Santa Cruz Island eight kilometers to the east (Daily 1989). Additionally, SRI is the second largest of the Channel Islands, with an area of 217 Newell 4 km2 (Hofman and Rick 2014). The island has a Mediterranean climate with dry summers with occasional fog and cool rainy winters. The main sources of water on the island are from the winter rains and through fog capture (Daily 1987). SRI has a mild topographic terrain (Kennett 2005) with landscapes that are primarily rolling hills and grasslands (Daily 1989). The climate influences different island ecosystems; the plants on the island grow in different ecosystems including coastal strands, coastal bluffs, grasslands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, woodlands, pine forests, riparian and marsh ecosystems (Daily 1987). Island History Formation of Islands The Channel Islands were created through tectonic uplift, faulting, as well as rising and falling sea levels (Schumann et al. 2014). They were previously connected to the mainland as a peninsula approximately 33.9 million to 200,000 years before present (Thorne 2007). Then during the Mesozoic era (252-66 million years ago) there was plate tectonic activity, illustrated in Figure 1a, that caused part of the Transverse Range on the North American plate to break off and rotate (Bartolomeo and Longinotti 2010). The constant moving of the plates caused the formation of the Santa Rosa Island Fault during the Miocene epoch (23-5.3 million years ago) (Kennett 2005), resulting in an east-west striking fault (Schumann et al. 2014). During the island's formation, fluctuations in sea level caused the land to submerge. Sea levels declined around 20,000 years ago, allowing the northern islands to be connected as a land mass known as Santa Rosae (Figure 1b), which was only eight kilometers from the mainland. Later, during the Holocene Epoch (12,000-11,000 years ago), the islands shifted into their present day location (Rick 2005). Marine terraces that can be found along the landscape were formed during the rise and fall of sea levels over time. These terraces formed topsoil over the bedrock that allowed for organisms to inhabit it (Schumann et al. 2014). Due to the island being fully submerged over the course of its formation, all of the terrestrial biota that originated from the mainland was lost. Subsequently, the biotas on the islands must have arrived over water (Thorne 2007). Therefore, the island has a lower species diversity than the mainland following the island biogeography theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Newell 5 Figure la Rolaliun ef Transverse Range (Party lumeu riiui l.imglhottl 2010) h'iyiirH lb Santa Sysaa land mass Chumash ~13,000 ybp-1816 Humans have inhabited SRI for at least 13,000 years, dating back to when the first known human remains, Arlington Springs Man, were discovered (Orr 1962). There were Chumash artifacts found in close proximity to the remains suggesting that this human was among them. During the time when the Chumash lived on the island, the largest mammals were the island fox and the spotted skunk. The Chumash also introduced dogs to the island that accompanied them for thousands of years (Hofman and Rick 2014). The Chumash were known for their arts, storytelling, and hunter-gatherer practices (Rick 1992). The Chumash made fishing hooks from abalone shells along with canoes from sea lion skins and redwood, which floated southward in the oceans currents. Nearly all the food the Chumash consumed was raw (Bowers 1996). The Chumash’s main consumption was marine resources with terrestrial plants supplementing their meals (Erlandson et al. 1999). Preserved charcoal suggests that the Chumash used burning for their agricultural purposes to enhance plant growth (Timbrook 2007). The Chumash also planted plants from the mainland and other islands (Rick et al. 2014). They used plants as a source of food and medicine (Timbrook 2007). The history of the island's land use dates back to the Chumash era, when it is estimated that human alterations to the land and vegetation began. Carrillo Era 1843-1859 The ranching era on Santa Rosa Island began on October 3rd, 1843 when the Carrillo brothers were granted ownership of the island from Mexico (Allen 1996). In 1844, they introduced 270 cattle (Bos taurua), nine horses (Equus caballus), two rams (Ovis aries), and 51 ewes (Ovis aries) to the island (Daily 1989). They also built the first house on the island in 1855 (Vail and Daily 1989). By 1856, the island’s animal population had grown to 2,300 sheep, 8,000 cattle, and 235 horses (Allen 1996). The introduction of non-native grazers started the degradation of the island's vegetation and ecosystems. Newell 6 More Era 1858-1901 In 1858, the next ranching era began when the previous owner Carrillo became ill and sold his livestock to the More family. The More family primarily used the island as a sheep ranch (Allen 1996). During this era, there were more than 100,000 sheep on the island, (Daily 1989) and 1,200 sheep were being killed per day (Allen 1996). Alexander P. More, the sole owner, passed away in 1893, leaving the island to John F. More. John F. More was a neglectful owner and let the sheep run freely on the island (Allen 1996). The destruction to the land led to the new ownership of the island. Vail and Vickers Era 1901-2011 In 1901, the Vail and Vickers families became the third private owners of the island. The Vail and Vickers families purchased the island in poor condition from the More family (Allen 1996). They removed the sheep to let the grass grow (Allen 1996) and to act as a conservation effort for the island (Hillinger 1996). However, the same year they stocked the island with 1,891 cattle (Allen 1996). In the early 1930’s, the families introduced deer from Arizona and elk from Washington with the intention of opening a private hunting reserve on the island (Woolley 1996). The Vail and Vickers families saw the island face harsh consequences as a resulting of land degradation by sheep grazing and severe drought conditions, often forcing the family to cut the grazing season short (Bowers 1996). National Park Service Era 1986-Present In 1986, the National Park Service (NPS) signed an agreement and purchased the land for $30,000,000 from the Vail and Vickers families.
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