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The Importance
Ancient temperate rain forest ecosystems, such as those surrounding Bamfield Marine Science Center (BMSC) are very rare on a worldwide scale, fragments
of which can only be found in Southern Chile and Norway. This puts the protection of this ecosystem high on the global conservation agenda. Many threats
are well documented such as habitat fragmentation due to logging and environmental degradation through human disturbance. Other threats are less obvious,
such as changes in temperature and precipitation associated with climate change, and changes in air quality. Bryophytes are an essential component of
temperate rainforest ecosystems as they contribute to the overall species diversity, understory biomass, and nutrient cycling throughout the temperate
rain forests of northwestern North America (Binkley and Graham 1981; Schofield 1988; Wilkinson et al. 2005). Due to the overwhelming abundance of bryophytes
in the coastal forests and the rest of the province, early collectors have called it “The Bryologists paradise”. In this context it is important to assess
and monitor the bryophyte diversity of the coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem.
The Purpose
The purpose of this project is to evaluate how overall species composition of bryophytes differs spatially from the top of the tree canopy down to the forest floor and from the interior forest out to the oceans edge. The BMSC’s Public Education Program provides a unique opportunity for this initial assessment to become the baseline for a continuing monitoring program, which would be the first of its kind in coastal temperate rainforest ecosystems to our knowledge. This monitoring approach will enable future researchers to assess the rate of change in bryophyte diversity and thereby provide an important “early warning” indication of the degree of biological response to disturbances such as climate change.
The Process
The location of the sampling sites close to the BMSC is ideal, as changes in temperature and precipitation are being recorded in great detail and hence can provide an ideal reference point for future monitoring. The existence of the canopy access system at the BMSC provides us with the unique opportunity to survey bryophytes in an ecosystem that is understudied due to its inaccessibility. The results of the survey are made public via the BMSC webpage, which can then be used by the Station’s well established public education program.