Preliminary Results

GOOD NEWS!  We are finally done in the greenhouse.  My young Bishop pines have been growing for just under two months now and I can see some patterns.  I haven’t finished running my statistics yet but I noticed that both the mainland and Santa Rosa Island population grow much better with ash cover.  This was to be expected but a more interesting finding was that the island population had more successful germination and higher growth rates than the mainland population under conditions without ash.  There were still very few seeds from the island population that germinated under conditions without ash so I have to run my statistics to be sure that there is a significant difference in the populations.  If my data does turn out to be significant then my hypothesis will be proven correct, the Santa Rosa Island population has adapted to survive under conditions lacking fire, specifically the distribution of nutrients from the ash.

The top photo shows conditions of high precipitation with ash and the bottom photo shows conditions of high water without ash.  The difference is evident as soon as you walk into the greenhouse.