- What Is Dark Diversity?
- How Sudbury Became a Restoration Success
- Why Do Some Plants Have Thicker Leaves?
- Why Haven’t These Plants Come Back?
What Is Dark Diversity?
Forest biologist Élise Deschênes is standing in a wooded area, addressing the camera.
“So if, let’s say, I take this little shrubland as an example, instead of looking at the species that I can actually count and look at, Dark Diversity tries to estimate those species that aren’t there but I think would be able to show up.”
We see images of a young forest.
“The way that I can figure that out is by knowing what are my species in the surrounding region and which ones grow together.
Back to Élise addressing the camera.
“Basically, let’s say here I have three species showing up, and I know that in other places in the region those three species almost always show up with an extra two. Since I know that those five species are associated together and typically they can grow in the same areas — in the same conditions — then I know that those two extra species would be part of my Dark Diversity here because of that association.”
Canada wordmark appears.
How Sudbury Became a Restoration Success
Forest biologist Kierann Santala is standing in a rocky cliff overseeing a forest as she addresses the camera.
“Sudbury is a pretty unique place.”
Historical photos of an old mining and forestry operations, including buildings and rocky landscapes.
“At one time, it would have been considered one of the world’s most environmentally damaged areas. Now, it’s considered a restoration success story. Within the city of Sudbury, there was extensive logging followed by the smelting of sulphur-rich metal ore, and as a result, we lost most of our vegetation cover.”
Back to Kierann addressing the camera.
“Where I’m standing here today would have at one time looked like bare rock, maybe a little bit of soil.”
Aeriel views of modern-day Sudbury.
“Around the 1970s, industry, local academic partners, local government, as well as stewardship groups, started working together to restore the landscape”
Back to Kierann addressing the camera.
“50 years since the beginning of the re-greening program, 35,000 hectares of area have been limed and grass seeded, and over 10 million trees have been planted. Most of Sudbury’s forests today look like what you can see around me, and they look like a young forest.”
Images of young birch trees in a forest setting.
“However, there are still concerns that they might be low in terms of their biodiversity.”
Canada wordmark appears.
Why Do Some Plants Have Thicker Leaves?
Forest biologist Kierann Santala is kneeling in a forest next to short plants as she addresses the camera.
“A lot of what we do in our lab is we look at plant functional traits. Plant traits tell us about how a plant species is going to respond to its environment, but also how it’s going to influence its environment.”
Kierann picks up a few plant leaves.
“One of the two traits that we look at often is specific leaf area — so, how big is a leaf — versus leaf dry-matter content — so, how thick and rigid is a leaf.”
Close-up of blueberry plants.
“If you were to take something like blueberry that grows in an open, dry condition, these leaves are going to tend to be smaller and thicker, and that allows it to grow in drought conditions.
Kierann holds two leaves of varying sizes in her hand.
“Where if you take something like Mayflower that grows underneath the canopy, these leaves are going to be larger and thinner. This is because it’s like a solar panel, where it wants to produce large leaves that are able to capture the light that’s blocked out by the above canopy.”
Canada wordmark appears.
Why Haven’t These Plants Come Back?
Forest biologist Élise Deschênes is standing in a wooded area, addressing the camera.
“We found that a lot of the missing species in Sudbury were orchids and ferns. Orchids and ferns have very small seeds that disperse very easily. They can disperse wherever they want, but they have very specific germination requirements and soil conditions.”
Close-up on a hiking boot clearing up forest debris, followed by a shovel starting to dig a hole.
“This lets us know that the species are able to get there, but they’re not able to grow; so maybe for them to recover, we would need to improve the soil conditions first.”
Back to Élise addressing the camera.
“We also found that some other missing species were shrubs and trees with fruits on them.”
View of small berries on a tree, followed by a bird landing on the outside of a bird house.
“These are much larger seeds that can’t disperse quite as easily and depend a lot more on birds, for example, that will chew them up and bring them around.”
Back to Élise addressing the camera.
“That indicates to us that in the case of these fruit-bearing shrubs, there might be a lack of dispersal by birds, and we might need to improve the conditions so that maybe these birds can come back.”
Canada wordmark appears.