Scouler’s corydalis (Corydalis scouleri) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 9
Population Sizes and Trends
Searches have been most intense to date in the Nitinat watershed, due to road accessibility, and this watershed contains the largest number of known extant sites. The first observation of Scouler’s corydalis in British Columbia was by W. Carter in 1915 on the Nitinat River. Through the 1970s to early 1990s, a number of observations/ collections were made on the Nitinat and Klanawa Rivers and along Nitinat Lake. Pavlick (1989) also searched without success the Gordon, San Juan and Klanawa drainages. The most intensive searches to date, and the first to document population sizes, were conducted in 1997 and 2003 (Douglas and Jamison 2000, Douglas and Smith 2003; respectively). All of the searches have been conducted by vehicle along logging roads and therefore focus on creeks and wetlands adjacent to these roadways. A small portion of the less accessible Klanawa watershed has been searched, near the convergence of the East Klanawa and Klanawa Rivers, and downriver in and around the Klanawa River Ecological Reserve.
Potential habitat on all the drainages has been estimated, based on the surveys conducted in the Nitinat drainage. There is an estimated 65 km2 of potential habitat along the Nitinat River, 18 km2 in the Klanawa drainage, 10 km2 around Cowichan Lake, and 9 km and 10 km2 along Carmanah and Walbran Creeks, respectively.
It is estimated that less than 50% of the potential habitat for Scouler’s corydalis in the Nitinat River drainage has been searched to date (Douglas and Smith 2003), mostly on the accessible westerly side of the river (Figure 4). Since searches have been in the form of sporadic point surveys, the populations, which often occur in bands along streams and rivers, are probably much larger and more continuous than has been recorded.
The Klanawa River drainage has yet to be adequately searched, with only three small areas, or about 10% of the entire area, searched (Douglas and Smith 2003). Recently, additional populations have been observed in the upper Cowichan Lake and Carmanah River drainages. It is likely that many more populations of Scouler’s corydalis will be found in these unsearched areas (see Figure 4) in the future.
There are presently 24 populations (36 sites) where Scouler’s corydalis has been observed (Table 2) in British Columbia within the last six years (1997 to 2004). These contain a total of about 848 000 stems. Since single clones may consist of numerous annual stems, spreading for at least tens of square metres (Ryberg, 1960), it is only possible to count stems and area covered to estimate population size. Stem counts by the authors were estimated after extrapolation from total counts made in 10 subpopulations in one-metre plots.Stem numbers range from one up to 462 000 per population. Seven of the populations have stem numbers over 20 000, which represent 95% of all the stems in British Columbia. The populations vary greatly in size from just a few square metres to 3.4 ha. Eight of the populations are over 0.5 ha in size. Total area currently occupied by these known populations is approximately 0.10 km2.
Using the ratio of area of extent to potential habitat found in the Nitinat drainage, it is estimated that there is an additional potential area of occupancy in the Klanawa, Carmanah, Walbran and Cowichan drainages totaling 0.143 km2.
The Conservation Data Centre recognizes Scouler’s corydalis in twenty-four populations or element occurrences in BC (J. Penny, pers. comm. 2006; Table 2). Populations are delineated from one another when they are separated by one kilometre or more. Five of the locations have not been mapped and therefore don’t have a number yet. Missing element occurrence numbers represent changes in spatial representation in the GIS and not a loss in numbers.
The number of stems in the populations of Scouler’s corydalis have not been adequately monitored. However, at the few sites that have been visited more than once over the last five years, the number of stems appears to be stable.
The nearest population of Scouler’s corydalis, outside of British Columbia, is on the Olympic Peninsula, approximately 80 km to the south; therefore natural immigration from this source is highly unlikely. These populations to the south are considered to be healthy as these species are not ranked (SNR) in Washington and Oregon. However, there have been no genetic studies between the United States and the Canadian populations to determine evolutionary relationships. Potential habitat exists in the adjacent watersheds of the Carmanah and Walbran Creeks.
CDC Element Occurrence # (=population) | Sites (equal to subpopulations when more than one site per element occurrence) | Last Observation | Observer | Number of Stems/Area |
---|---|---|---|---|
No # yet | Cowichan 1 | 2004 | Douglas | 6/2 m2 |
7 | Nitinat 1 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 34 700/5 784 m2 |
19 | Nitinat 2 | 1997 | Jamison | 16/60m2 in 3 clusters |
6 | Nitinat 3 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 2 108/1 054 m2 |
6 | Nitinat 4 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 1 000/60 m2 |
6 | Nitinat 5 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 2 000/330 m2 |
24 | Nitinat 6 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 1 350/120 m2 |
No # yet | Nitinat 7 | 2004 | Penny and Ford | 10/4 m2 |
No # yet | Nitinat 8 | 2003 | Ferguson | No data |
No # yet | Nitinat 9 | 2003 | Ferguson | No data |
5 | Nitinat 10 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 18 000/1 600 m2 |
23 | Nitinat 11 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 150/15 m2 |
2 | Nitinat 12 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 50/150 m2 |
2 | Nitinat 13 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 40/150 m2 |
3 | Nitinat 14 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 462 600/34 068 m2 |
4 | Nitinat 15 | 1998 | Douglas | 2 000/5 000 m2 |
4 | Nitinat 16 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 2 000/7 000 m2 |
4 | Nitinat 28 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 44 850/24 800 m2 |
13 | Nitinat 17 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 94 800/7 900 m2 |
13 | Nitinat 18 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 21 867/7 275 m2 |
13 | Nitinat 19 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 6 820/1 026 m2 |
21 | Nitinat 20 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 540/36 m2 |
16 | Nitinat 21 | 1997 | Jamison | 1 000/1 000 m2 |
17 | Nitinat 22 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 105 700/5 000 m2 |
17 | Nitinat 23 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 5/6 m2 |
18 | Nitinat 24 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 60/60 m2 |
18 | Nitinat 25 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 44 000/5 500 m2 |
18 | Nitinat 26 | 1997 | Jamison | 100/60 m2 |
1 | Nitinat 27 | 2003 | Douglas and Smith | 1 080/300 m2 |
10 | Klanawa 1 | 2003 | Hoyt | 1 700/920 m2 |
15 | Klanawa 2 | 1997 | Roemer | 12 pls |
15 | Klanawa 3 | 1998 | Douglas | 14/10 m2 |
15 | Klanawa 4 | 2004 | Douglas | 4/2m 2 |
20 | Klanawa 5 | 1998 | Douglas | 2/5 m2 |
11 | Klanawa 6 | 1998 | Douglas | 1/1 m2 |
No # yet | Carmanah 1 | 2004 | MacKinnon | 7/500 m2 |
Total | 848 592 stems |
See Figure 4 for site locations.
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