CLIMBERS

The Censusing Lianas In Mesic Biomes on the Eastern RegionS (CLIMBERS) project began as an initiative to give my undergraduate students more experience in climbing plant ecology and help them understand the identification process for lianas.  Because our tropical field work is expensive and requires long field campaigns, we used this project as a way to stimulate interest in climbers closer to home.  We had three main goals:

Capturing data for the Climbers Project

  • To determine how many species of vines grew within the state boundaries of Michigan
  • To examine the distribution of those vine species on a county-level basis
  • To use Michigan as northern data point(s) in a latitudinal gradient of sites that compared climate, functional traits, and community composition from Florida to Michigan.

We found (Burnham & Santanna 2015) that 105-125 species of climbing plants can be found within Michigan, depending on the definition of the life form. These include exotics and native species. We found a bimodal distribution of vine species, with a large number found in the lower two tiers of Michigan counties and another spike in species richness in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula.  We attribute this bimodal distribution to collector attentiveness, as well as to summer home sites.  At the same time, the distinct drop in climber species richness at mid-latitudes within Michigan may be due to a severe “cold pocket” that is centered on Montmorency and Ostego counties.  This cold pocket limits the length of the growing season for species there.

Apios americana found on Island Lake Road

We established twenty-two 0.5-hectare plots in Michigan, spanning the full range of latitudes. All stems were mapped, measured, and identified to species in each plot.  We also established eight plots in the states of Ohio, New York, and Tennessee.  We are anxious to continue plot work in southern Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee, so transects are complete across the range of intended latitudes.

 

References:

Burnham, R.J. & C.V. Santanna 2015. Distribution, diversity, and traits of native, exotic, and invasive climbing plants in Michigan. Brittonia, 67(4): 350-370. DOI 10.1007/s12228-015-9385-1