Annually since 1996, students from the University of Waterloo (UW) have been collecting forest biodiversity data in permanent plots along the Niagara Escarpment. This one week block course is a third year credit through UW's department of Environment and Resource Studies (ERS).

Methods for data collection are taught by staff from the Ontario's Niagara Escarpment (ONE) Monitoring. Course logistics are coordinated by an ERS professor at UW. A one day training and orientation session takes place at the start of the course. Students maintain their own field camp which keeps costs low. A variety of guest speakers with expertise in ecology, planning and environmental monitoring are invited to share their knowledge. Workshops and field trips are organized throughout the course to provide an opportunity for students to learn more about the ecology and geology of the Escarpment environment.

Implementing the SI/MAB protocol

The standard forest biodiversity monitoring plot is one hectare (100 m x 100 m) in size and composed of 25 (20 m x 20 m) quadrats. All trees > 4.0 cm in diameter within the plot are tagged and measured. Students spend 6 to 8 days in the field to collect information on the type of tree species, status (alive or dead), diameter-at-breast height (dbh) and tree height classification. The location of each tree is also mapped.

During initial inventories, tree height was measured using a clinometer. This method was found to be impractical due to the inability to clearly see the top of the trees in dense forest situations. Students now classify trees according to their position in the canopy (i.e. dominant, co-dominant, intermediate, suppressed, open grown). This classification system is consistent with the method used by the Canadian Forest Service during tree health assessments.

Ground Cover and Shrub/Small Trees

Using a protocol developed by the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) of Environment Canada, 20 permanent 1m x 1m ground cover subplots are established outside of the main one hectare plot near randomly selected corners. Students identify and count the number of individual plants and clumps within each subplot (including all woody plants under 1m in height). Percent cover of each species is also estimated. Initially, twenty ground cover subplots are established. A species accumulation curve is then generated to determine if more than 20 subplots are needed to capture a representative sample of ground cover species.

To examine regeneration, 10 - 5m x 5m shrub/small tree subplots are set up in ten randomly selected corners inside the 1 hectare plot (includes all woody plants greater than 1 m in height but less than 4 cm dbh). Shrubs and saplings within the subplots are tagged and identified. A species accumulation curve is also calculated to determine if the number of subplots is adequate.

Data Management

Students are responsible for entering tree data into a database program developed by the Smithsonian Institute (called BioMon). In addition to storing the data, BioMon creates plot maps and charts that can be printed to verify the collected information. Tree data are analyzed for a) species composition % in the canopy; b) % of trees in each status category; c) basal area by species; d) relative density; e) relative dominance; and f) relative frequency. A number of indices are also applied, including Importance Value Index, Simpson's Dominance Index, Simpson's Diversity Index and Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index.

A database has been developed using Microsoft Access to store and analyze ground cover and shrub/small tree data.