Iowa vegetation. Here yesterday. Maybe here today. Gone tomorrow?

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Lower Pine Lake, Pine Lake State Park, near Eldora Iowa. Above. View of the island from the south shore, in 2005. The Pine Creek population of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.), many tens of km southeast of the main body of the current species’ distribution, experienced substantial damage and mortality in an August 2009 hailstorm.  At right, several dead trees surround a more sheltered survivor, in 2015. The fate of this population, likely a relict of a time when coniferous forests were more widespread in Iowa, illustrates the vulnerability of such vestiges of Iowa’s vegetation history to chance disturbances.

In characteristically clunky prose, which I am compelled here to quote, I asked my BIO 305 (Evolution of the Iowa Flora) students to “compose a 3-4 page (double-spaced) blog post that informs a scientifically literate lay audience about a primary research article that is about the history of the Iowa flora or contains ideas or findings germane to understanding historical change in the Iowa flora. (In other words, the article does not need to be based on Iowa, but it must be Iowa-relevant).” The students’ posts, which will follow this one, should highlight interesting recent articles about vegetation past, present, and/or future and explain how those articles relate to what we know—and don’t know—about Iowa’s vegetation history and possible futures. Reading these “research blogs” should give you an entry into how scientists assemble evidence about vegetation change, as well as remind you that Iowa’s flora was, is, and, I hope, will be more than just Zea mays L. and Glycine max (L.) Merr. (You probably don’t need links to those two species.)