Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

During the 2019-20 hydrologic year several projects were initiated which were designed to evaluate questions resulting from the long-term Black Lake Ecological Area (BLEA) Nipomo lupine outplanting experiment. These include an assessment of soil conditions at various sites, an assessment of soil moisture at multiple sites and two additional experimental outplanting trials to evaluate the extent to which fog collection by cages could be more of a factor than herbivory-protection and to evaluate whether there are any benefits to lupine survival from growing ‘with’ versus ‘without’ other plants nearby. Results from those studies were compiled in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 reports after a second seeding of those experiments in 2020.

This report covers results from monitoring of the two experimental trials over the 2021-22 winter which was, again, very dry and reduced the number of seedlings which survived to produce seeds. This report also covers the 2021-22 augmentation effort which included 23 plots each seeded with 500 seeds established in the swales at BLEA (2014/15 trial swale and 2019 trial swale) and Kathleen Goddard Jones Overlook swale (KGJO). These plots included modest variation to further track the pros and cons of seed scarification and fencing/caging as well as parallel camera trap studies designed to document seed predation and plant herbivory.