Project Description: Morristown National Historical Park (MORR) is embedded in a vast suburban landscape with parks and sanctuaries abutting its boundary. Although recent research has characterized the difference between urban and rural vegetation in the Northeast, there is a lack of quantitative and long-term study of suburban landscapes which are a major component of the region’s natural resources and biodiversity. A key objective of this project is to evaluate the current condition of the park’s vegetation to clarify the factors that cause landscape stressors with the focus on invasive plants and deer browsing. This will be accomplished through inventory of vegetation plots and analysis with data sets from the same plots that were recorded in 1995 and 2001.
Another objective is to measure the course of natural resource change from different ecological starting points. This can be accomplished because of the original stratified plot design in locations established in 1995. Half of the plots were established in highly invaded areas while the other half are found in areas that were substantially clean of invasive species in 1995. This project will determine if sites that were not invaded in 1995 have remained uninvaded. This addresses the tempo of vegetative change and the persistence of invasive character of vegetation over twenty or more years.
The Rutgers ecology researchers implementing this project recently completed a comprehensive vegetation survey at MORR in over fifty forested canopy gaps. This gap study has recorded the invasive species and regeneration of native canopy species in response to Hurricane Sandy. These data will deepen our understanding of vegetation dynamics in the 1995 plots over a period of 26 years and inform future management decisions.
Lead Principal Investigator: Steven Handel, Rutgers University
Partner Institution: Rutgers University
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Federal Agency Technical Contact: Robert Masson
Project Type: Research
Project Discipline: Natural Resources
Project Sub-Discipline(s): Biological (Ecology, Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, T&E)
Start Year: 2021
End Year: 2022
Initial Funding Amount: $30,000.01
Federal Grant Number: P21AC10154-00
Amendments
- Amendment Number: 02, Year: 2023, Amount: $-6.18
National Park or Protected Area: Morristown (FWS)
State(s): New Jersey
Products Associated with this Project:
- No products found.