A Local Habitat Assessment of NYC's City's Sole Fresh Water Aquifer

Assessing habitat in an urban environment can be daunting. Still, nature in a cityscape is sure to inspire. Knowing how species co-exist in close quarters is key. Primed for this knowledge a small group of dedicated homo sapiens gathered at a small river in the middle of a vast metropolis to study a new habitat. Survivors of ice ages, mass extinctions and the pollution of an entire planet the students and the plants had come to wonder at each other.

The mutual assessment took place on two partly cloudy days of June 5th and 12th, 2019, roughly between the hours of 11:30 and 12:30 PM. Temperature was a comfortable 70 to 72 degrees F. with a slight threat of rain. The site consisted of a small tributary flow into the Bronx River near a stone roadway bridge. One subsequent visit was made for purposes of photo documentation.

Stone Bridge Vantage Point

Armed with binoculars, loupes, hardhats, field guides and led by our instructor Nancy Slowik the group was primed to discover not just what lived in a habitat but a habitat itself. The plan was to deduce this by counting species incidence and supporting conditions. It was a holistic approach that

was new and exciting. For me it was a game changer. I suddenly saw relationships where before there were only species.

The group proceeded from approximately N40.866413 W-73.875595 along the New York Botanical Garden Spice Brook Trail and at times off the trail and into woodland. The study used three basic vantage points: an elevated view from the bridge wall, an excursion to the base of the bridge, and a vista obtained from a grassed lawn slightly to the north east.

Grassed Lawn Vantage Point

Presence of Water, flow, clarity size:

What remains of the Bronx River may be thought of as a river in a sea of concrete. This is immediately apparent on the map below. Dammed at it source in 1885 and long a dumping ground for sewage and industrial waste it wasn't until 2007 that flow of pollution into the river finally ceased. Even so, urban runoff continues to be a problem. While our small observed section was only a small stream leading into the river proper, the river was only yards away. It all seemed of a piece.

Botanic Garden River Site in a Sea of Stone and Asphalt

The stream was perhaps four feet across at our start point, moving slowly at about 6 inches per second. It was clear where the water flowed at about a depth of 4 to 5 inches, and cloudy and turgid at the edges.

Small Stream

Describe soil texture, soil moisture, soil color, leaf litter depth, bare soil:

Soil was rich and moist, dark brown and loamy. A depth sample of the leaf litter was taken about 2 feet from the pictured wall and was determined to be about 2" deep.

Leaf litter predominately oak though no oaks immediately present

List of trees present, number, size, cavities:

Trees were larger than sapling unless noted:

American Sycamore - 4
Red Maple - 5
Black Sorghum - 1
Ash Sapling - 1
Tulip Saplings - 1
Black Cherry - 2 mature, 1 sapling
Ironwood - 1
Sweet Gum - 1
Willows - 2 one medium, 1 small

Sycamore - about 3' diamter

Maple Leaf

Sweet Gum New Leaf

Musclewood Trunk

Willows (Unidentified)

List of shrubs, how many, height density:

Shrubs were scattered and of medium to low density

Spice Bush - 2 medium size
Multiflora Rose - 1 small
Arrowood/Vibernam - 1 large
Honeysuckle - 1 bush-like in appearance


Multiflora Rose

Viburnam

List of herbaceous plants, how many, grass-like or broad leaved, height:

Low lying herbaceous plants were the most numerous species present , most notably jewelweed which was rampant along the stream bank in all sizes and stages of growth, skunk cabbage, and prominent stands of iris.