Field Biology of PlantsWetlands are habitats that provide critical ecosystem services. As transitional habitats
between terrestrial and aquatic environments, wetlands contain plant communities that are
typically species rich. One way to measure the composition of plant communities is to inventory
the species and conduct a Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) of the species. Created by
Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), the FQA is a tool to evaluate areas that
may be of floristic importance and calculate the diversity and species richness of a site. We
conducted an FQA of the Bessey Creek Nature Preserve in Cheboygan County, MI, which is
owned by the Little Traverse Conservancy (Harbor Springs, MI). The site is located at the mouth
of Bessey Creek where it enters Douglas Lake. The preserve contains several plant communities
located throughout four habitat zones: the roadside, the swamp, the littoral marsh, and the
aquatic shoreline. Our sampling indentified a total of one hundred sixteen species in fifty-four
families, with a mean coefficient of conservation of 4.44 for only native species, and 3.62
including introduced species. The preserve has wetlands index of -2.52, signifying that the
preserve contains mostly facultative wetland species. Twenty species are considered exotic and
are not native to the area. Based on the MDNR’s FQA equations, we calculated the Floristic
Quality Index (FQI) of Bessey Creek to be 41.87 when considering only native species and 37.83
when including introduced species. Bessey Creek has a lower FQI than other preserves, ranking below Orchis Fen Preserve (FQI: 49.60) and Kalman Preserve (FQI: 61.70). However, Bessey
Creek’s FQI value is above the current threshhold of 35 determined by the MDNR, and is thus
considered floristically important to the state of Michigan.Little Traverse Conservancyhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89421/1/Dorey_VanDyke_Vogt_2011.pd
