My research project looks at the plant species richness in two areas of an urban park. As species richness is the number of species in a given area (Freedman, 2014) to think of a theoretical basis I have to think about what could be driving an increase or decrease in how many species are found in each area. One area of the park that I am surveying is a maintained sod lawn that has small lawn weeds throughout, the other area is an unmaintained area where sod grass is not the dominant vegetation.
According to Freedman (2014), a monoculture is an agroecosystem that is a single crop community and is rigorously managed. Sod grass can be seen as a monoculture and as a result, my instant reaction is that a monoculture would limit the species richness around them as the sod grass is taking up a majority of the resources in that area and is limiting the growth of other plant species. This would be because the sod grass is the dominant competitor in the area whereas in the unmaintained area there are no clear dominant species, however, it is clear that they are competing within the unmaintained area for different resources.
No forbs are in the lawn area and typically only lawn weeds have abilities to survive within the sod grass. On the other hand, the unmaintained area is not a monoculture but rather there appears to be great variety in the different species. However, I have been surprised by the amount of lawn weed species in the maintained area and since the plants are larger in the unmaintained area it is easier for it to appear to have greater species richness when looking at the park as a whole but only my data collection with show if my prediction was right or wrong.
Keywords:
Species Richness
Urban Park
Sod-grass Dominance
References:
Freedman, B. (2014). Ecology: A Canadian Context. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780176482008/
Cheers,
Reid Marriott T00716013