ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITATIONS OF TWO RARE ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN FLORA SPECIES AND THE IMPACT OF HYDROLOGICAL ALTERATIONS by Jennifer Mary-Jane Lusk Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science (Biology) Acadia University Spring Convocation 2006 © by Jennifer Mary-Jane Lusk, 2006 The examining committee for the thesis was: Dr. John Roff, Chair Dr. Sherman Boates, External Reader Dr. Rodger Evans, Internal Reader Dr. Ed Reekie, Supervisor Dr. Phil Taylor, Department Head (delegate) This thesis is accepted in its present form by the Division of Research and Graduate Studies as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree Master of Science (Biology). ii Table of Contents List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures................................................................................................................. viii Abstract........................................................................................................................... xiv Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................xv Chapter 1 - General introduction.....................................................................................1 1.0 Background .............................................................................................................1 1.1 The Atlantic Coastal Plain flora (ACPF)..........................................................2 1.2 Rarity ...................................................................................................................6 1.3 Conservation initiatives......................................................................................7 1.4 Natural water fluctuations and watershed alterations....................................8 2.0 Purpose of the study..............................................................................................11 3.0 Study species..........................................................................................................12 4.0 Study sites ..............................................................................................................13 Chapter 2 - The effect of growing season length...........................................................24 1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................24 2.0 Methods..................................................................................................................27 2.1 Transplant preparation....................................................................................27 2.2 Transplanting ....................................................................................................28 2.3 Measurements ...................................................................................................30 2.4 Data analysis......................................................................................................31 3.0 Results ....................................................................................................................32 3.1 Effect of week planted ......................................................................................32 iii 3.2 Effect of depth ...................................................................................................34 3.3 Effect of lake......................................................................................................36 4.0 Discussion...............................................................................................................38 4.1 Effect of week planted ......................................................................................38 4.2 Effect of depth ...................................................................................................42 4.3 Effect of lake......................................................................................................44 5.0 Conclusion and applications ................................................................................48 Chapter 3 - The effect of environmental variables .......................................................73 1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................73 2.0 Methods..................................................................................................................74 2.1 Transplants........................................................................................................74 2.2 Plant and environmental variable measurement...........................................75 2.3 Data analysis......................................................................................................81 3.0 Results ....................................................................................................................82 3.1 Environmental variables ..................................................................................82 3.2 Effect of environmental variables....................................................................85 4.0 Discussion...............................................................................................................91 5.0 Conclusion and applications ................................................................................97 General Conclusion........................................................................................................113 Appendix 1. Aspect of transplant transects....................................................................116 Appendix 2. The Unified Soil Classification System field classification technique for coarse-grained soils (USCS P13b version 2) for hand texturing soil in the field............117 iv Appendix 3. The loading pattern of PCA factors that summarize the environmental variables measured for each H. umbellata transplant; values closer to one indicate higher correlation of that environmental parameter with the factor. ...............................123 Appendix 4. The loading pattern of PCA factors that summarize the environmental variables measured for each C. rosea transplant; values closer to one indicate higher correlation of that environmental parameter with the factor. ..........................................124 References.......................................................................................................................125 v List of Tables Table 1. Results of ANOVA analyses for H. umbellata on each measurement day; values are sums of squares for each term, significant terms are highlighted. In the day of year row, the first four numbers of the number are the year, and the last three digits are the Julian day of the year out of 365. Analyses from day 2004261 on only include Raynard's and Wilson's Lake. ............................................................................................51 Table 2. Results of ANOVA analyses for C. rosea on each measurement day; the values are sums of squares for each term, significant terms are highlighted. In the day of year row, the first four numbers of the number are the year, and the last three digits are the Julian day of the year out of 365. Analyses from day 2004261 on only include Raynard's and Wilson's Lake. ............................................................................................52 Table 3. Periods for survival analysis. .............................................................................53 Table 4. Average precipitation (1971-2000) and actual precipitation in the summers of 2004-5, and during the fall of 2004 for Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (20-30 km southwest of the study lakes) (from Environment Canada http://www.climate. weatheroffice. ec.gc.ca/climateData)...............................................................................100 Table 5. Significant factors in stepwise regression of H. umbellata early growth (Ln (# of leaves * maximum diameter)), measured July 10-13th, 2005..................................101 Table 6. Significant factors in stepwise regression of H. umbellata size at harvest (Ln (# of leaves * maximum diameter), measured August 9-24th, 2005. ........................101 Table 7. Significant factors in stepwise regression of H. umbellata final biomass. ......102 Table 8. Significant factors in stepwise regression of C. rosea early growth (Ln (# of leaves * maximum height)), measured July 10-13th, 2005. .............................................102 vi Table 9. Significant factors in stepwise regression of C. rosea size at harvest (Ln (# of leaves * maximum height), measured August 9-24th, 2005. .......................................103 Table 10. Significant factors in stepwise regression of C. rosea final biomass.............103 Table 11. Significant factors in stepwise regression of number of flowers for C. rosea from 2005...............................................................................................................104 vii List of Figures Figure 1. The Atlantic Coastal Plain physiographic region, indicated in yellow, east and south of the black line, extending from Texas to Cape Cod. The main areas of disjunct populations are shown as circles; the asterix indicates a smaller disjunct of only a few species in Cape Breton, N.S. (adapted from http://tapestry.usgs.govna- info.html). ..........................................................................................................................15