NPS Photo
Research data provide valuable information to assist with the management of park resources. The Old-Growth Bottomland Forest Research and Education Center works to integrate research into the visitor experience, park resource management, and educational outreach programs.
Current research needs have been identified below, although the park is open to other original research proposals.
- Baseline inventories and long-term monitoring for: vegetation, mammals, aquatic invertebrates, terrestrial invertebrates (spiders, butterflies, etc.) non-vascular plants, fungi, reptiles and amphibians, birds, fish
- Water quality and quantity monitoring (surface and ground) impacts of point and non-point pollution contaminant sources and pathways
- Aquatic ecology and in-stream habitat
- Adjacent land use, land cover and management
- Fluvial geomorphology of the Congaree/Wateree Rivers
- Large-scale watershed level analysis of land use change
- Nutrient cycles and processes on floodplain ecosystem
- Biogeochemical factors in the floodplain
- Response of floodplain systems to climate change
- GIS management applications
- Champion tree monitoring
- Distribution mapping and management strategies for non- native exotic species
- Mapping and management strategies for rare, threatened and endangered species
- Red-cockaded Woodpecker habitat assessment and re- introduction
- Preparation of an Integrated Pest Management Plan
- Forest dynamics, succession, recovery patterns and forest recruitment research
- Preparation of a Vegetation Management Plan
- Floodplain indicator species
- Creel surveys
- Fire ecology
- Wildlife diseases
- Soils (mapping and additional investigations)
- Air quality and effects on vegetation communities
- Aircraft overflight noise and impacts on soundscapes
- Develop a natural heritage database
Last updated: October 7, 2014