EDI Staging Environment
The purpose of this project is to 1) estimate number of seeds per unit area in a mature northern hardwood/mixed conifer forest stand and 2) document changes over time in selected tree and shrub seed production.
Permanent seed traps were established in 1988 in two forest types. Seed traps (13.9 L [5 gal] capacity buckets) are installed 0.5 m off the ground on two metal stakes in the center of each forested plot. Buckets are open to the tree canopy and have small (< 2cm) holes near the bottom edges for drainage. Fifty collection buckets are placed approximately 30 m (100 feet) apart and distributed along painted grid lines in the Huntington Wildlife Forest Natural Area. Twenty-five plots are northern hardwood upland forest (dominated by sugar maple, American beech and yellow birch with some conifers) and 25 plots are in the mixed hardwood/conifer lakeshore forest type (dominated by red maple, yellow birch, red spruce and eastern hemlock). Tree and shrub seeds are collected annually during two periods: July to November (Fall) and November to July (Spring). The spring and autumn collections are based on tree species’ seed phenology.
If a bucket was tipped over due to disturbance by a bear or some other factor, it was censored from the survey for that year. Mice or other seed predators that were physically found/present in buckets also resulted in sample censoring. Animal scat or partly-consumed seeds are not censored, as these may have fallen from the tree canopy during seed predators’ normal activities.
