Invasive species, those being species that spread and thrive when outside of their native habitat, are a big issue in wildlife areas today. Amur Honeysuckle, the focus of my research, is a particular problem in the eastern United States. Compared to native plants, Honeysuckle grows its leaves out sooner and will keep them longer into the year, decreasing sunlight that reaches native wildflowers, shrubs, and tree saplings. While Honeysuckle has already been shown to have detrimental effects on local species, such as in Miller and Gorchov’s study (2004), my research seeks to look at what impact honeysuckle has on the emergence of spring flowers. To do this, three sites in Miami University’s Western Woods were set up, each site having an area with heavy honeysuckle coverage, and one without any Honeysuckle. Sampling plots were then set up in each area, wildflowers within each plot being marked and recorded for when they first flower. As well as first flowering dates, several other metrics, such as temperature, leaf coverage, and the basal area, that being the total surface area taken up by Honeysuckle stems, are also being recorded. Although the project is still ongoing, initial results show that most species found in the heavy honeysuckle plots experience delays in budding times, while timing changes for flowering are on a per species basis. To follow up on the effects of flowering timings, a similar experiment to test if honeysuckle presence has an impact on flower amount per individual could be carried out. In ecology, flowering timings are crucial to the survival of a species, as changes to it can cause the period of flowering to be disconnected from the period that local pollinators are active, leading to decreased reproductivity and an overall decline or even extinction of the species.
Author: Wolfgang Graff, Botany Major
Advisor: Richard Moore, Biology & David Gorchov, Biology
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