Publications

In 2024, the NCBP conducted a year-long biodiversity survey of the White Pines TLC Preserve in Chatham County. The results are presented in the report now available here on this website as well as a website we set up specifically for this project, which can be viewed at https://auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/ncbp_whpi/index.php

Although the White Pines Preserve has been well-surveyed for its vascular plants, dating back to a survey conducted by Ed Swab in the late 1980s, our survey produced a number of important records even for that group but also for taxa such as slime molds, bryophytes, crickets, and other groups that have received little systematic surveys at this site. The 804 species of moth identified in our survey are especially noteworthy.

Beyond just providing a more comprehensive list of the species present in this preserve, we were particularly interested in determining how well this preserve is holding on to both its species and its ecological relationships through time. We conducted what we call Biotic Persistence Analysis both on individual taxonomic groups, such as breeding birds and amphibians, but also on groups defined based on ecological or biogeographic factors. Our analysis of breeding birds, for example, found that the preserve has been especially effective in maintaining species of neo-tropical migrants that require intact forest interiors for nesting. By far the most spectacular of our findings, however, was our documentation of over thirty that appear to have persisted at this site since the end of the Pleistocene, some ten thousand years ago. The White Pines themselves are hallmark species in this regard, but in addition to the Catawba Rhododendrons, Red-backed Salamanders, and Suillus mushrooms previously identified as Pleistocene relicts at this site, we found 28 species belonging to eight taxonomic groups that also appear to fit this pattern. These results set the stage for further investigations into just how the features of this site, as well as of these particular species, has allowed them to persist in isolation for this great a time span. These are questions that are highly relevant in today’s world, where biodiversity – ourselves included – are at increasing risk.

Protected natural areas, such as the White Pines Preserve, are key elements in our efforts to maintain our populations of native species and their ecosystems. The results of our survey show that surveying entire biotic groups can play a critical role in biomonitoring, going beyond what is possible where only a few rare or declining species are documented or small groups of indicator species believed to represent the interests of entire ecosystems. While we do not dispute the importance to conservation of the analysis of such groups, there is so much more information out there left to be considered, all of which is relevant to our understanding of what is happening to our environment, information that is vitally needed if we have any chance of maintaining biotic persistence into the future.