Sierra Nevada Network

Monitoring: Vital Signs

Thirteen Vital Signs: Meadow and Wetland Plant Communities

McClure Meadow: Kings Canyon National Park.

Below is more detailed information on the thirteen vital signs that the Sierra Nevada Network will pursue for protocol development. Several Vital Signs are grouped according to the wider ecosystem being studied. Current sampling designs and protocols are found in the Sierra Nevada Network: Vital Signs Monitoring Plan (2007).

Abbreviations:
SIEN   Sierra Nevada Network
DEPO  Devils Postpile National Monument
SEKI    Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park
YOSE   Yosemite National Park

Meadow Ecological Integrity: Wetland (meadow) Water Dynamics, Meadow and Wetland Plant Communities , Macroinvertebrates (Meadows)
Vital Signs: Wetland water dynamics, meadow plant communities, meadow invertebrates.

Justification: Meadow wetlands are of ecological importance disproportionate to their size. They are areas of high net productivity, high species diversity, and serve important physical and chemical functions such as nutrient uptake, sediment trapping, and habitat for wildlife. Meadows produce food for wildlife both within the meadows and adjacent upland areas. Meadows are important to park visitors for their wildlife, wildflower displays, overall aesthetic qualities, and as forage for recreational pack stock. Meadows are fragile and may be impacted from many different stressors that include grazing (contemporary from pack stock and alterations caused by historic grazing practices with cattle and sheep), invasive plants and animals, trampling (human and stock), atmospheric nutrient deposition, agricultural contaminant deposition, global warming, disturbance (human and stock), habitat fragmentation from trails, altered hydrology from trails and roads, non-native diseases, and loss of sediment due to altered fire regime in adjacent upland areas. Meadows were selected for monitoring because of their ecological significance, fragility, and because they are represented well across the Sierra Network landscape in montane, subalpine, and alpine areas and in all sizes from small to large. National Wetland Inventory maps show that over 14,000 meadow wetlands occur within the Network.

Park: DEPO, SEKI, YOSE

Monitoring Objectives:

1. Determine temporal changes in species composition and abundance of meadow vascular and non-vascular flora, including changes in exposed bare ground.
2. Determine temporal changes in the composition and relative abundance of above-ground meadow invertebrate populations at the level of Family (Order when necessary for efficiency) except for identifying ants to species.
3. Determine temporal changes in hydrology including the duration, depth, and timing of surface and ground water.
4. Document temporal changes in wet meadow geomorphic process to include sediment flux into meadows and meadow soil density for sentinel sites and morphology and condition of meadow streams at all sites.
5. Document temporal changes in electrical conductivity and water temperature of meadow water.
6. Document temporal changes in coarse measures of anthropogenic influences to meadows.

For each of the objectives, the protocols will be designed to detect at least a 20 percent decadal change with 80 percent power.

Current planning status is found in the Sierra Nevada Network: Vital Signs Monitoring Plan (2007).

Learn More

Climate Change
Habitat Fragmentation and Human Use
Altered Fire Regime
Air Contaminants and Atmospheric Deposition
Non-native Species
New Climate Monitoring Station at Devils Postpile National Monument