HR: 13:45h
AN: NB23B-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Patterns in Biological Communities of Vernal Pools on Cape Cod, USA.
AU: * Colburn, B A
EM: colburn@fas.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard Forest, Harvard University, 324 North Main Street, PO Box 68, Petersham, MA 01366 United States
AB: Long-term studies (1995-2003) of vernal pools in the Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts, USA, show a number of patterns in plant and animal communities. Some pools can be identified as discrete "types," - e.g. graminoid, Sphagnum/shrub, - based on plant community composition, and support distinctive macroinvertebrate communities. Year-to-year variation in weather patterns and hydroperiod produces measurable changes in plant community composition in some pools, and these changes are accompanied by parallel changes in fauna. The distributions of some macroinvertebrate species in individual pools are consistent from one year to the next and are correlated with plant community composition and average hydroperiod. The distributions of other species vary with between-year variations in weather patterns and plant community composition.
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly