Documenting Changes in the Natural Environment of Indianapolis-Marion County from European Settlement to the Present

Barr, Robert C.; Hall, Bob; Wilson, Jeffrey; Souch, Catherine; Lindsey, Greg; Bacone, John A.; Campbell, R; Tedesco, Lenore P.

doi:10.3368/er.20.1.37

Cited by 7 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Recent estimates rate 13% of Marion County having medium to dense forest cover [18]. This cover is present primarily along the county's major river, White River, and its tributaries and in older residential areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the region has been greatly disturbed, primarily by ditching and draining of wetter sites, and clearing of forest for row crop agriculture. Barr et al [18] report recent forest cover in Marion County has been reduced to 13%.…”

Section: Marion County Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This region is predominated by neutral silt and silty clay loams of the Crosby-Brookston Association. Official government land surveys from 1820-1822 and soil survey records indicate that Marion County was 98% forested in pre-European settlement times [18] (for more information on historical land surveys in Indiana see [19]), with remaining land cover being open water or prairie. Specifically, mesic beech-maple covered 76% of the county, growing over an undissected plain of Wisconsin glacial till with small areas of oak-hickory forest on drier ridges.…”

Section: Marion County Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wet-mesic depressional forests were scattered throughout the county with floodplain forests along major rivers and tributaries. Wetlands including ponds, bog, marsh, and fens are estimated to have made up approximately 1% of the original land cover [18]. Most of the region has been greatly disturbed, primarily by ditching and draining of wetter sites, and clearing of forest for row crop agriculture.…”

Section: Marion County Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Living More Than Just Enough for the City: Persistence of High-Quality Vegetation in Natural Areas in an Urban Setting

2011

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Urban environments pose special challenges to flora, including altered disturbance regimes, habitat fragmentation, and increased opportunity for invasion by non-native species. In addition, urban natural area represents most people's contact with nature, given the majority of the world's population currently live in cities. We used coefficients of conservatism (C-values), a system that ranks species based on perceived fidelity to remnant native plant communities that retain ecological integrity, to quantify habitat quality of 14 sites covering 850 ha within the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Midwestern United States. All sites contained significant natural area and were inventoried via intensive complete censuses throughout one or two growing seasons within the last 15 years. Mean C-values for five sites were high, especially when compared to values reported for the highest quality preserves in central Indiana. However, for most sites the difference in mean C-value with and without non-natives was rather high, meaning that natural quality is likely to have been compromised by the presence of non-natives. Sites receiving the highest levels of stewardship and those with the least public access via trails had the highest mean native C-values. A total of 34 invasive non-native species were found across all 14 sites. Most were woody species. Mean C-value over all sites was significantly negatively correlated with the number of non-natives present, especially those considered invasive. These results demonstrate for the Indianapolis area, and likely other urbanized OPEN ACCESSDiversity 2011, 4 612Midwestern cities, remnant natural areas can retain high ecological value, especially if they receive regular environmental stewardship.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Marion County Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Marion County Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Marion County Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Living More Than Just Enough for the City: Persistence of High-Quality Vegetation in Natural Areas in an Urban Setting

2011

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“…1; for larger scale land use changes around Indianapolis see Fry et al, 2009). Historical records from the 1820s document the area was 98% forested in presettlement times, with beech-maple association dominating 76% of the landscape (Barr et al, 2002). Our study was conducted at two state dedicated nature preserves within a 1600 ha park owned and managed by the city.…”

Section: Methods Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Plant Species Composition and Structure in Two Peri-urban Nature Preserves over 10 Years

Dolan¹,

Stephens²,

Moore³

2015

The American Midland Naturalist

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ABSTRACT.-Peri-urban natural areas, at the boundaries of cities and adjacent agricultural/ rural land, are subject to ecological threats endemic to both land use types. We used permanent plots to document changes in habitat quality by monitoring herbaceous-layer plant species presence and cover over a decade (1996/97 and 2007) in two peri-urban nature preserves in central Indiana, U.S.A. The preserves are comprised of different forest community types: wet-mesic depressional forest and mesic upland forest. Habitat characteristics, based on Floristic Quality Assessment parameters, showed only a single change for either preserve between survey years: wetness values were lower in the wet-mesic depressional site in 2007 than in 1996, indicating more plants with affinity for wet soil. No changes in community structure (total species richness, evenness, and diversity) were found. The number of nonnative species increased between survey years, especially in the wet-mesic depressional forest, where numbers went from zero to six, five of which are classified as invasive. There was considerable turnover in individual species presence, with perennial forb species the most likely species to be found in only 1 y or the other. Species did not rearrange themselves within plots, but completely appeared or disappeared from all plots within a preserve between the sample years, suggesting that species composition of the flora is dynamic. Management recommendations, including those related to evidence of heavy deer browse, are presented based on our findings. Repeat monitoring of our plots in future decades will allow quantification of any extinction debt that may now be in place due to the increased presence of nonnative species, especially invasive shrubs escaped from landscaping.

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Green Urban Political Ecologies: Toward a Better Understanding of Inner-City Environmental Change

Heynen

2006

Environ Plan A

132

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This research uses a Marxist urban political ecology framework to link processes of urban environmental metabolization explicitly to the consumption fund of the built environment. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I argue in this paper that Marxist notions of metabolism are ideal for investigating urban environmental change and the production of uneven urban environments. In so doing, I argue that despite the embeddedness of Harvey's circuits of capital within urban political economy, these connected notions still have a great deal to offer regarding better understanding relations between consumption and metabolization of urban environments. From this theoretical perspective, I investigate urban socionatural metabolization as a function of the broader socioeconomic processes related to urban restructuring within the USA between 1962 and 1993 in the Indianapolis inner-city urban forest. The research examines the relations between changes in household income and changes in urban forest canopy cover. The results of the research indicate that there was a significant decline over time in the Indianapolis urban forest canopy and that median household was related to these changes, thus demonstrating a concrete example of urban environmental metabolization.

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Documenting Changes in the Natural Environment of Indianapolis-Marion County from European Settlement to the Present

Cited by 7 publications

References 14 publications

Living More Than Just Enough for the City: Persistence of High-Quality Vegetation in Natural Areas in an Urban Setting

Living More Than Just Enough for the City: Persistence of High-Quality Vegetation in Natural Areas in an Urban Setting

Changes in Plant Species Composition and Structure in Two Peri-urban Nature Preserves over 10 Years

Green Urban Political Ecologies: Toward a Better Understanding of Inner-City Environmental Change

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