The Biogeography of the Southwestern Corner of Ontario
The Carolinian zone of Canada, located in extreme southwestern Ontario, is significant for the concentration of rare species found there, and the high diversity of species. Investigations into the biogeography of the region have been carried out. These investigate biogeographical components of the region, including rare plants and the vascular flora of the Erie Islands. The two abstracts given below give an insight into our work. These investigations have broad implications generally with respect to ecological reserve design and planning, in particular planning for protection in the face of climate change.
photo by Diane Williamson
1) Klinkenberg, Brian. 2002. Spatial Analysis of the coincidence of rare vascular plants and landforms in the Carolinian zone of Canada: implications for protection. Canadian Geographer. 46 (3) : 194 - 203.
Assessing biodiversity in natural landscapes continues to be a focus of attention. While some researchers assess the value of predictive features, such as landform, others examine concentrations of rare species, seeking insight into their significance. In this paper, I examine two inter-related concepts. I explore the distributions of rare species on the landscape, assessing correlations between landform, numbers of rare species, and protected areas. I also examine the role of protected sites in maintaining biodiversity. Using records of rare plant collections for the southwestern portion of Ontario (the Carolinian zone) that were compiled as part of the Atlas of Rare Vascular Plants of Ontario, and combining these with a) a map of the landforms of south-western Ontario and b) the locations of protected areas within this region, an analysis was made of the spatial coincidences or rare vascular plants, landforms and protected areas. The findings here indicate that protected areas are criticallly aligned with the distribution of rare vascular plant species. While protected areas occupy less than 2 per cent of the study region, approximately 20 percent of the 4,379 unique rare plant records analyzed (representing 170 of the 293 rare species in the database or 68%) were collected from a protected site. In addition, while 42 percent of the rare vascular plant records occur on a single landform type, sand plains, sand plains occupy only 18 percent of the region. And while 24 percent of the study region is composed of till plains, less than 2 percent of the rare plant collections were found on this landform. Significantly, four landforms, representing 50 percent of the study region, support over 80 percent of all rare plant collections.
2) Klinkenberg, B. 2001. Similarity of the flora of the Erie Islands: Implications for conservation biology. Canadian Geographer 45 (3): 337-448.
Using a compiled list of the vascular flora for 21 islands in the western basin of Lake Erie, Preston's resemblance measure and Connor and Simberloff's Null Hypothesis I were applied to native and alien species subsets in order to examine how these findings fit within the equilibrium theory. Based on Preston's measure, it was found that the similarity of species between island pairs was more likely to fit with MacArthur and Wilson's equilibrium theory when native species were considered than when alien species were considered. Native species have restricted distributions--especially those found on the smaller islands--and appear to be less randomly distributed about the islands. This study also found that a large component of the alien flora is widespread in its distribtuion, and appears to be randomly distributed among most of the islands.
see also The theory of Island Biogeography with Special Reference to the Erie Islands.
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Selected Publications
Klinkenberg, B. 2002. Spatial analysis of the coincidence of rare vascular plants in the Carolinian Zone of Canada: implications for protection. Canadian Geographer. 46 (3) : 194 - 203.
Klinkenberg, B. 2001. Similarity of the flora of the Erie Islands. Canadian Geographer 45 (3): 337-448.
Klinkenberg, B. 1997. Hot Spots: a spatial-temporal analysis of the rare vascular plants in the Carolinian Counties of southwestern Ontario. World Wildllife Fund (Canada). 56 pages.
Klinkenberg, B. 1992. Biodiversity of the Lake Erie Archipelago. IN: Janelle, D. (ed.). 1992. Geographical Snapshots of North America. New York: The Guilford Press, p. 265-269.
Klinkenberg, B. 1988. The theory of island biogeography applied to the vascular flora of the Erie Islands. IN: Downhower, J. F. (ed.). The Biogeography of the Island Region of Western Lake Erie. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, p. 95-105.
bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), photo by Diane Williamson
Klinkenberg, B. and R. Klinkenberg. 1986. Preliminary annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Kent County,
Ontario. 130 pp. unpublished manuscript.
Klinkenberg, B. 1986. Status report on Desmodium illinoense, an extirpated species in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa. 17 pp.
Klinkenberg, B. (ed.). 1985. A life science inventory of Skunk's Misery Area of Natural and Scientific Interest.
London: McIlwraith Field Naturalists Inc. and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Aylmer District, 103 pp.
Klinkenberg, B. 1985. A status report on Collinsia verna (blue-eyed Mary), an extirpated Canadian plant species. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa. 18 pp.
Klinkenberg, B. 1984. Status report on Celtis tenuifolia (Ulmaceae): a rare Canadian plant species. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa. 33 pp.