Tuesday, September 17, 7:00 PM: Mariola Barrera. Poa fendleriana Demography and Fecundity

Posted on Sep 03, 2024

Perennial grasses are key components of ponderosa pine forest ecosystems yet there is little information on their life history and populations (Bakker and Moore 2007, Bakker et al. 2010). Studies about plant population dynamics are useful for understanding a species’ population structure and for predicting the impacts of disturbances such as harvesting, fire, grazing, and drought. Demography is used to study population dynamics by examining how populations change over time using birth rates, death rates, and life expectancies (Freckleton 1999). Understanding the population dynamics of the understory plants, in particular the demography of dominant perennial grass species, will enable managers and scientists to consider how environmental change, disturbances, and restoration treatments will affect the understory plant communities For my project, I will use a long-term data set from within the ponderosa pine-bunchgrass ecosystem on the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona, to investigate the demography of a dominant perennial bunchgrass, mutton bluegrass (Poa fendleriana (Steud.) Vasey). This network of fine-grained (1-m2) permanent chart quadrats was remeasured annually from 2002-2022, for a total of 21 consecutive years (Bakker and Moore 2007, Bakker et al. 2008, Laughlin et al. 2009, Strahan et al. 2015, Moore et al. 2022). I will develop a size-based life table using data from 2002-2023 to estimate survival (and mortality), growth (from the plant basal areas over time), and life expectancies for this species. I will determine if this species’ population has been increasing, decreasing, or staying steady over the past 22 years. Lastly, I will collect reproduction (fecundity) data, such as number of flower stalks, maximum flowering height, and glume counts from the individual mutton bluegrass plants growing on these quadrats, which will increase the precision of my demography model.

Mariola Barrera is a Senior in the School of Forestry at NAU, pursuing a certificate in Forest Health and
Ecological Restoration as well as a minor in Biology. She received her Associates of Applied Science in
Natural Resource and Environmental Sustainability at Phoenix College and is also a certified Master
Gardener of Northern Arizona. She currently works for the Ecological Restoration Institute as a research
assistant, for Dr. Margaret M. Moore in the ecology lab in Forestry, as well as for Dr. Tina Ayers in Biology.
Her primary interest is merging her passion for botany and forestry, as she has an infinite curiosity of
knowing the plants within the landscape, how they function, their relationships, and how it all ties into the
intricate web of ecological dynamics as it pertains to management and for her own knowledge.

Tuesday, October 15, 7:00 PM: National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring

Posted on Sep 03, 2024

Fall 2023 Chapter Meetings

Posted on Aug 24, 2023

Regular evening programs are presented on the third Tuesday of the month, March through October, at 7:00 PM via Zoom. Some of the meetings have been recorded and can be viewed the Flagstaff Chapter’s Facebook or at The Arizona Native Plant Society. For details about upcoming meetings, please see our email distribution list (naris123@cs.com), Facebook page, or AZNPS.com. Field trips are typically held the weekend following the evening presentation. Watch the email distribution list for information about upcoming field trips.

Tuesday, September 19, 7:00 PM: Andrew Salywon. Using Trained Dogs to Detect Endangered Spiranthes delitescens
The objective of this work is to determine the ability of detection dogs to identify the presence of Spiranthes delitescens. If successful, the use of detection dogs would be a powerful tool to aid future surveys to relocate historical populations or discover previously undocumented populations of Canelo Hills ladies’ tresses. Utilizing trained dogs and their powerful sense of smell can greatly aid conservationists by making plant surveying much more efficient, thus requiring less human effort and resources. Spiranthes delitescens have recently been observed in small numbers at only one of four historically documented sites.

Tuesday, October 17, 7:00 PM:

Lane Butler. Assessment and Status of Rumex orthoneurus, a Rare and Vulnerable Forest Service Conservation Agreement Species on the Tonto National Forest

This talk will tell the story of Rumex orthoneurus on the Tonto National Forest from the late seventies to the present. How have populations changed? How has management changed? What actions have been taken to conserve the species under Conservation Agreements? What is the species status today and what does its future look like? Lane will address these questions and more.
Lane Butler is currently working on several rare and endangered plant conservation grants at the Desert
Botanical Garden. She enjoys hunting for (and finding!) rare plants, especially flowering Arizona hedgehog cacti on the Tonto National Forest. In 2015, she earned her Master of Science at ASU in Plant Conservation Biology in the riparian plant community ecology lab. Her project emphasized the relationships of plant and butterfly abundance and diversity to stream-flow permanence along Sonoran Desert streams.