Papers by Richard Stalter
Journal of Coastal Research
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 1970
Trees found at forty home sites, Jamaica Estates, New York City, New York, were selected for stud... more Trees found at forty home sites, Jamaica Estates, New York City, New York, were selected for study October 15 to November 7. 1995. Trees with a DBH (diameter at breast height) greater than 7.6 cm were identified and mapped at each property Density, relative density, frequency, relative frequency, basal area, relative dominance and importance values for all trees with a DBH greater than 7.6 cm were calculated. Black oak (Quercus velutina) and red oak (Quercus rubra) ranked first and second in relative dominance and importance; oaks (Quercus spp.) collectively have a relative dominance value of 81. Oaks are most numerous in the largest three size classes, (51 to 75 cm, 76 to 100 cm and greater than 100 cm) but comprise a small percentage of the two smaller size classes (7.5 to 25 cm, 26 to 50 cm) which presumably contain the youngest trees. Non-native trees make up seventy percent of the smallest size class category and native trees other than oaks are more numerous than oaks in the smallest two size class categories. The transition to a forest of non-native species may be a very gradual process because of the longevity of oaks.
Ecology and the Environment, Apr 26, 2017
The objective of the present study was to identify, map, determine tree dominance and frequency o... more The objective of the present study was to identify, map, determine tree dominance and frequency of occurrence of old trees and colonizing tree seedlings and saplings at 50 home sites at Powhatan Park, Montvale, New Jersey. Powhatan Park (41.05N, 74.05W) includes Waverly, Forest and Westmoreland Avenues and was developed as a summer resort complete with bungalows and a club house built in the 1920s. White oak (Quercus alba), red oak (Quercus rubra) and black oak (Quercus velutina) were the most frequently encountered old growth trees. The three trees with the highest relative dominance were Q. velutina, Q. alba and Q. rubra, with relative dominance values of 25.4, 18.9 and 17.4 respectively. Twenty-eight tree species have colonized the home sites. Transition to non-native taxa may be a very slow process because of the longevity of the dominant oaks.
Journal of Coastal Research, 2017
Avicennia germinans (L.) L. is a pantropical, subtropical, and occasionally warm-temperate mangro... more Avicennia germinans (L.) L. is a pantropical, subtropical, and occasionally warm-temperate mangrove species that occurs on shorelines that have a broad horizontal tidal range. Also known as black mangrove, stands typically develop under anoxic, waterlogged conditions in substrates of silt or clay. Black mangrove can tolerate salinity values ranging from 0 to 90 parts per thousand. Salt is excreted from salt glands on both leaf epidermal surfaces, and aerosol salt spray and salt crystals are frequently observed on the upper leaf epidermis. Avicennia germinans is viviparous. The embryos have no dormancy requirements, and there is no seed bank. This mangrove species has the northernmost distributional range of any mangrove species in North America. It occurs in Louisiana and northern Florida. Color-infrared photography and airborne video imagery techniques have been used successfully to map stands of black mangrove on subtropical coastal shorelines. Reforestation efforts using seedlings and saplings have been successful in several areas of the tropics and subtropics. Avicennia germinans stands play an important role in ecosystem functions as a natural barrier to coastal erosion caused by tropical storms, as habitat for a wide range of organisms in intertidal food chains, and as a carbon repository.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/herbarium_specimens_byname/4004/thumbnail.jp
Journal of Coastal Research, May 6, 2015
BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access t... more BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.
The Missouri Review, 2000
We implement methods for generating null plant communities in order to have empirical probability... more We implement methods for generating null plant communities in order to have empirical probability distributions (e.g., of Jaccard floristic similarity) against which observed statistics may be compared for tests of significance. We present data for three United States Atlantic coastal sites having a conbined vascular flora of 1298 species. The flora of these sites, located from about 400 to 250 N Latitude, was geographically disjunct. Only 2% of the 1298 species was found at all three sites, 19% was found at two sites, and 79% of species was found only at one of our coastal sites, despite their physiographic similarity. This pattern was similar for the 350 alien species (27%of total species) and the 35 species of non-flowering plants. Jaccard coefficients may be used to measure floristic similarity between pairs of study sites but proper interpretation of these coefficients should be made relative to a null community. Although "randon labeling" (our method 1) is most commo...
Medical research archives, 2019
Smith Island Maryland, a 1150 hectare island lies in the center of the Chesapeake Bay (37.97N, 76... more Smith Island Maryland, a 1150 hectare island lies in the center of the Chesapeake Bay (37.97N, 76.02W). Brackish and salt marsh vegetation are dominant on Smith Island that rarely rises a meter above high tide. The objective of this study was to document the vascular flora of Smith Island. The vascular flora of Smith Island, Maryland, consists of 144 species within 121 genera and 57 families. The Poaceae (22 species) and Asteraceae 22 species) are the largest families in the flora. Cyperus (6 species) and Solidago and Trifolium, each with 3 species, are the largest genera in the flora. No species in the flora are rare or endangered in Maryland. Species of foreign origin, 59 species, are numerous in the flora and compose 41% of the natural vegetation. Each taxonomic entry in the checklist is accompanied by an annotation, which includes the locality and habitat in which each species occurs and frequency relative to the study area.
The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, 2021
Abstract. The objective of the present study was to document change in arborescent vegetation at ... more Abstract. The objective of the present study was to document change in arborescent vegetation at Alley Pond Park, Queens County, New York over 83 yr. We compared data generated from a Works Progress Administration (WPA) study map in 1936, with data generated at the same points on the map in 1975 by Stalter, and again at the same points in 2018. Quercus rubra L. was dominant in 1936, 1975, and 2018. There was little change in important overstory trees over 83 yr. Cornus florida L., the dominant subcanopy tree in 1936 and 1975, was nearly eliminated by dogwood anthracnose in 2018. Parsimony analysis reveals a branching break in 2018 and the early samples; this is best explained by community development, succession, and the presence of invasive taxa, Acer platanoides L., Morus alba L., and Prunus avium (L.) L.
Ecosystems and Sustainable Development XI, Apr 26, 2017
The objective of the present study was to identify, map, determine tree dominance and frequency o... more The objective of the present study was to identify, map, determine tree dominance and frequency of occurrence of old trees and colonizing tree seedlings and saplings at 50 home sites at Powhatan Park, Montvale, New Jersey. Powhatan Park (41.05N, 74.05W) includes Waverly, Forest and Westmoreland Avenues and was developed as a summer resort complete with bungalows and a club house built in the 1920s. White oak (Quercus alba), red oak (Quercus rubra) and black oak (Quercus velutina) were the most frequently encountered old growth trees. The three trees with the highest relative dominance were Q. velutina, Q. alba and Q. rubra, with relative dominance values of 25.4, 18.9 and 17.4 respectively. Twenty-eight tree species have colonized the home sites. Transition to non-native taxa may be a very slow process because of the longevity of the dominant oaks.
The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, 2016
On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy crashed into the New York Bight as a post-tropical cyclone.... more On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy crashed into the New York Bight as a post-tropical cyclone. This storm produced extensive damage to the New Jersey and New York coastal zone. Much of the damage was caused by the storm surge that accompanied Sandy and the shifting of sand and destruction of coastal dunes. Our study was concerned with the effects that this event had on the vascular flora of the salt marshes in the impact zone. We visited six New Jersey-New York marshes in the late summer and early fall of 2013 and compared, using parsimony analysis, the current state of the vascular flora of those marshes against a pre-Sandy database. Although we observed relatively minor variations in the vascular flora at these sites, that is, the loss of some species and gains in others, overall, most plant species post-Sandy was the same as those pre-Sandy. Thus, we conclude that the species composition of the vascular flora of these salt marshes showed a remarkable degree of stability in the face of this catastrophic disturbance.
Stalter and Lamont (1987) studied a 8.5 ha remnant in the vicinity of Mitchell Field and found li... more Stalter and Lamont (1987) studied a 8.5 ha remnant in the vicinity of Mitchell Field and found little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius Michx.) and broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon virginicus L.) to be the dominant species. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), indiangrass [Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash], and bird-foot violet (Viola pedata L.) are remnants of the prairie flora that dominated Hempstead Plains years ago. Invasion of alien species such as crabgrasses (Digitaria spp.), foxtail grass (Setaria faberi Herrm.), and purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) on disturbed sites reflects the changing character of the Hempstead Plains flora. The small size of the Mitchell Field site, disturbance by vehicles and dumping may hasten the very slow process of old field succession at Mitchell Field.
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 1984
... John&#x27;s Univ., Jamaica, NY 11439 and Biol. Dept., Pfeiffer College, Misenheimer, NC 3... more ... John&#x27;s Univ., Jamaica, NY 11439 and Biol. Dept., Pfeiffer College, Misenheimer, NC 38109). Hammock vegetation of Little Talbot Island State Park. ... Results and Discussion. Quercus virgi-niana Miller was dominant with Persea bor-bonia (L.) Sprengel and Sabalpalmetto Lodd. ...
Proceedings of the annual meeting of the …, 1992
Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, 1997
... For assistance in the identification of several taxa we thank Ihsan Al-Shehbaz, Steven Cleman... more ... For assistance in the identification of several taxa we thank Ihsan Al-Shehbaz, Steven Clemants, Robert Meyer, Richard Mitchell, Richard Rabeler, Alfred E. Schuyler, Charles Sheviak, and GordonTucker. Fi-nally, we acknowledge the financial support of St. John&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s University. ...
Rhodora, 2015
The consequences of initial variability in reproductive effort on later pollination and fruit dev... more The consequences of initial variability in reproductive effort on later pollination and fruit development have frequently been investigated with flower removal experiments. Often, plants produce many fewer fruits than flowers, so flower removal might not be expected to alter subsequent growth or development patterns all that much. Yet, many studies have demonstrated such changes even for species with low average fruit set, which begs for an explanation. Many (at least seven, by our count) such explanations have been reported in the literature, but experimental support for most is limited. In summer 2014, we conducted a field experiment on a lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) farm in Maine. In this experiment, we coupled flower removal with three other treatments, each designed to assess the validity of one of three often-cited hypotheses invoked to explain why growth and development changes occur following flower removal: 1) “Short-term nutrient shortages;” 2) “spatiotemporal limitations;” and 3) “the compound interest effect.” The three respective treatments—foliar nitrogen fertilization, positionally biased flower removal, and defoliation—were designed to either intensify or weaken the apparent effects of flower removal if the corresponding hypothesis had merit. As in a 2013 preliminary experiment, flower removal elicited several statistically significant growth and development changes in blueberry, including increases in final leaf area, ripe fruit weight, fruit ripening rate, and relative fruit production. The additional treatments also elicited several significant plant responses, though not always with concomitant flower removal effects as well. For example, fertilization generally increased fruit cluster mass by harvest, but flower removal itself had no such effect on cluster mass. Most observed interactive effects between flower removal and the additional treatments either ran counter to expectations, were limited in scope, or couldn't be unambiguously interpreted. For at least a few observed changes, none of the additional treatments significantly altered the effects of flower removal. We conclude that current hypotheses for the mechanistic basis for changes induced by flower removal are inadequate, at least for blueberry, a species with frequently low fruit set even when managed commercially. However, strong intellectual and economic imperatives exist to encourage further investigation into this open question.Plants grown in horticulture or occurring as adventives outside their native range can provide insight into species’ fundamental niche requirements that might not be evident from the native range, or realized niche, alone. Such occurrences can also identify conditions that support individual survival, but do not currently sustain positive population growth (i.e., a species’ ‘tolerance niche’). Further, in the context of rapid climate change, horticultural and adventive occurrences beyond current range edges might circumvent natural dispersal limitations and facilitate species range shifts. To explore these concepts in the field, we investigated the history and structure of five newly discovered populations of naturalized Magnolia tripetala near horticultural sites in western Massachusetts, USA. This tree species is native to the southeastern US, but has been grown horticulturally in the Northeast since the 1800s. However, naturalized populations had not been well documented in the region previously, raising the possibility that the species’ escape has been triggered by recent climate change. With tree coring and life stage surveys, we asked whether the naturalized populations exhibited synchronous patterns of establishment and expansion, suggestive of climatic release and a shift from tolerance niche to fundamental niche conditions in the region. Across the five sites, we documented 660 individuals, with populations ranging in size from 46 to 396 individuals, including seedlings, saplings, and reproduct
Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Jul 23, 2021
The objective of this study was to collect and document the vascular plant species at the 2104-he... more The objective of this study was to collect and document the vascular plant species at the 2104-hectare J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, Florida. Vascular plant species were collected at two-month intervals from May 2014 to October 2017 during which we identified 319 species in 251 genera in 93 families. The Poaceae (41 spp.), Fabaceae (30 spp.), and Asteraceae (33 spp.) were the largest families. The most species rich genera were Euphorbia (8 spp.), Cyperus, Tillandsia (7 spp.), and Ipomoea (6 spp.). Eighty species; 25 percent of the flora, were non-native. One rare species occurred at the study site.
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Papers by Richard Stalter