Effects of age on hummock succession in bogs.

Abstract

Ecological succession is the change in communities over time. We chose to study the successional stages of hummocks in a bog using age. We hypothesized that hummock plant richness should increase then decrease with age because of successional flora species mixing. We also hypothesized that hummock density, and hummock size will increase with age. Our study site was a bog at Mud Lake located in Cheboygan County, Michigan. We set up two 100 meter transects, divided them into zones based on age then recorded hummock surface area and hummock density. Plant richness was also recorded. There was a significant difference in plant richness with hummock age but only when surface area was used a covariant. Surface area was not significantly different among different aged zones. Hummock density did not have any correlation with age. Places were successional flora species mixed provided more plant richness and also showed trends of higher surface area. The tree line altered our results in the youngest zones because it had late successional species mixed with early successional species. This gave one of our youngest zones the highest plant richness. This shows that trends exist between hummock size, and plant richness but the surrounding morphology has a large impact.