IDENTIFYING BROAD-SCALE ABIOTIC AND BIOTIC HABITAT CHARACTERISTICS OF ANEMONE AMERICANA, CONOPHOLIS AMERICANA AND GOODYERA PUBESCENS IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA by Chad Roderick Simmons Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia March 2021 © Copyright by Chad Roderick Simmons, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ v LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 Temperate Forests and Their Understory ........................................................................ 1 Study Area ....................................................................................................................... 4 Plant Communities of Nova Scotia .................................................................................. 6 Research Objectives ......................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2 METHODS ................................................................................................. 9 Target Species Selection .................................................................................................. 9 Target Species Background ............................................................................................. 9 Target Species Site Selection ........................................................................................ 10 Control Site Selection .................................................................................................... 11 Field Sampling ............................................................................................................... 13 Nova Scotia Forest Ecosystem Classification ............................................................... 17 Data Transformation ...................................................................................................... 17 Software ......................................................................................................................... 17 Statistical Analysis......................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 3 RESULTS ................................................................................................. 21 Control Sites .................................................................................................................. 21 Conopholis americana ................................................................................................... 23 Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling ....................................................................... 23 Contingency Table Chi-squared ................................................................................. 23 Principal Component Analysis ................................................................................... 24 Generalized Linear Model ......................................................................................... 24 Goodyera pubescens ...................................................................................................... 30 Non-Metric Multidimensional scaling ....................................................................... 30 Contingency Table Chi-squared ................................................................................. 30 ii Principal Component Analysis ................................................................................... 31 Generalized Linear Model ......................................................................................... 31 Anemone americana ...................................................................................................... 37 Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling ....................................................................... 37 Contingency Table Chi-squared ................................................................................. 37 Principal Component Analysis ................................................................................... 38 Generalized Linear Model ......................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................... 44 Forest Vegetation ........................................................................................................... 44 Conopholis americana ................................................................................................... 44 Limitations with Research on Conopholis americana ............................................... 46 Goodyera pubescens ...................................................................................................... 46 Anemone americana ...................................................................................................... 49 Limitations with Research on Anemone americana ................................................... 51 Control Sites .................................................................................................................. 52 Mechanisms of Plant Rarity and Connections to Target Species .................................. 52 Rare Plant Conservation ................................................................................................ 54 Project Limitations and Future Work ............................................................................ 55 Research Importance ..................................................................................................... 57 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 58 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 59 APPENDIX 1 IMAGES OF ANEMONE AMERICANA (A), CONOPHOLIS AMERICANA (B) AND GOODYERA PUBESCENS (C) ..................................................................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX 2.1 PEARSON’S CORRELATION MATRIX FOR CONOPHOLIS AMERICANA ENVIRONMENTAL VARAIBLES (N=29) ............................................................................................................................... 79 APPENDIX 2.2 PEARSON’S CORRELATION MATRIX FOR GOODYERA PUBESCENS ENVIRONMENTAL VARAIBLES (N=30) ............................................................................................................................... 80 APPENDIX 2.3 PEARSON’S CORRELATION MATRIX FOR ANEMONE AMERICANA ENVIRONMENTAL VARAIBLES (N=30) ............................................................................................................................... 80 iii APPENDIX 3.1 PLOT OF RESIDUALS FOR CONOPHOLIS AMERICANA ENVIRONMENTAL VARAIBLES ..................................................... 81 APPENDIX 3.2 PLOT OF RESIDUALS FOR GOODYERA PUBESCENS ENVIRONMENTAL VARAIBLES ..................................................... 82 APPENDIX 3.3 PLOT OF RESIDUALS FOR ANEMONE AMERICANA ENVIRONMENTAL VARAIBLES ..................................................... 83 APPENDIX 4.1 CANOPY PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION IN TARGET SPECIES AND CONTROL SITES ......................... 85 APPENDIX 4.2 SUBCANOPY PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION IN TARGET SPECIES AND CONTROL SITES ......................... 87 APPENDIX 4.3 SHRUB PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION IN TARGET SPECIES AND CONTROL SITES ....................................................... 89 APPENDIX 4.4 HERB PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION IN TARGET SPECIES AND CONTROL SITES ....................................................... 91 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1 An outline of the sampling variables, their definition, units and the tools used to record them. ............................................................................................ 15 Table 2 Generalized linear model (GLM) omnibus test results, test of model effects and parameter estimates of environmental variables from control sites (n=15) and Conopholis americana sites (n=14). ........................................ 29 Table 3 Generalized linear model (GLM) omnibus test results, test of model effects and parameter estimates of environmental variables from control sites (n=15) and Goodyera pubescens sites (n=15). ........................................... 36 Table 4 Generalized linear model (GLM) omnibus test results, test of model effects and parameter estimates of environmental variables from control sites (n=15) and Anemone americana sites (n=15). ............................................ 43 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Sampled control, Anemone americana, Conopholis americana and Goodyera pubescens sites in Nova Scotia, Canada (2019). ............................... 12 Figure 2 Proportion of control sites in categories of soil texture class (A), soil fertility class (B), forest vegetation group (C) and successional stage (D) (n=15). All control sites were in Southwest Nova Scotia. ..........................