Welcome to the University of California Santa Cruz - Forest Ecology Research Plot!
The UCSC-FERP is a 6-ha mapped forest plot in Mediterranean-climate, mixed-evergreen coastal forest in the Santa Cruz mountains, along the Central Coast of California, USA. Established in 2007 on the Campus Natural Reserve of the University of California Santa Cruz Campus, it is both part of an extensive area of protected forest habitat and just a short walk or drive from the UCSC laboratories and classrooms. It is meant to foster research and inquiry-based teaching about ecology and evolutionary biology in a changing world.
We are excited to be part of the Smithsonian Institute Center for Tropical Forest Science / Global Earth Observatory network (CTFS/SIGEO).
The plot includes 8,180 tagged woody individuals larger than 1 cm diameter, and includes 31 woody species from 27 genera and 18 families. Fagaceae and Pinaceae together comprise 3/4 of all stems. Work on the plot includes ongoing monitoring of many taxa and abiotic conditions.
We welcome collaborating researchers from UCSC and elsewhere to use the plot for non-destructive research that complements ongoing efforts. We are dedicated to making monitoring and descriptive data on plants, fungi, vertebrates, invertebrates, soils, micrometeorlogy, and phenology readily available for public use in a timely manner through this web page.
An detailed description of the plot vegetation is available in Gilbert et al. 2010. Beyond the tropics: forest structure in a temperate forest mapped plot. Journal of Vegetation Science 21:388-405.
The UCSC-FERP has been established and supported by generous funding from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0515520, DEB-0842059), the Pepper-Giberson Chair in Environmental Studies, The UCSC Committee on Research, the UCSC Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Smithsonian Institute's Center For Tropical Forest Science (CTFS).
The UCSC-FERP is part of the CTFS-SIGEO network of mapped forest plots for long-term studies of forest diversity and dynamics.