Spider species composition in Gaylussacia baccata clones of varying sizes on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts

This research was funded by grants from the Nantucket Land Bank and the Nantucket Land Council in 2008.

Sandplain grassland and coastal heathland habitats intermingle to form a mosaic on Nantucket’s glacial outwash plain. Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry) is a dominant species in coastal heathland and forms large clonal monocultures. As these clones expand they replace grassland and reduce overall plant species diversity. In this pilot study I captured spiders in different size classes of G. baccata clones to determine if clone size affects spider species diversity. I also recorded differences in major plant species. Smaller clones had significantly higher numbers of two wolf spider species: Pardosa saxatilis and Schizocosa bilineata. Smaller clones tended to have a higher number of spider species than larger clones. Smaller clones had higher percentages of grass cover and less G. baccata coverage. I suggest that future work should produce separate species area curves for sandplain grassland and coastal heathland habitats to determine an optimum ratio of areas to maximize spider species richness.

allSpiderData.csv
dataDictionary.csv - Data dictionary for all data files
mckenna-foster-report-2009.pdf - report describing project
vegetationData.csv