LIFE ON THE FRINGE: CHARACTERIZATION OF FRINGE VEGETATION IN ERIE BLUFFS STATE PARK (ERIE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA)

Human activities have resulted in the fragmentation of native habitat. One ubiquitous result of landscape modifications is a narrow strip of vegetation, hereafter referred to as fringe, that occurs between forest and inhospitable habitat like agricultural fields. This study investigated the fringe habitat in the Erie Bluffs State Park in Erie County, Pennsylvania. The park has several agricultural fields that are currently in use and one abandoned field resulting in 67,680 m2 of fringe. In order to understand the species composition and vegetation structure of the fringe, 1451 m-wide quadrats were established and the number and identity of species occurring within them was determined in both June and August. One hundred sixty-four species from 55 families were observed in the fringe, 39% of which were listed as annuals or biennials, 40% were non-native to Pennsylvania, and six are listed by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as exotic invasives or are on their watch list. Sixty-one percent of these species occurred in both the June and August censuses while the remainder were seen in only one of the two censuses. The average number of species per quadrat was greater in August than in June. Agglomerative Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was used to group quadrats in the fringe based on species similarity into three groups in June and five groups in August. Indicator Species Analysis determined 9 species associated with the groups in June and 14 species associated with the groups in August. The fringe is a spatially and temporally complex habitat with high species richness that has the potential to play a role in the stability of the forest habitat and the transition of agricultural fields to native habitat.