Importance/Issues

Generating over 99.9% of the Earth’s biomass (Whittaker 1975), plants are the primary producers of life on our planet.  Vegetation therefore represents much of the biological foundation of terrestrial ecosystems, and vegetation comprises or interacts with all primary structural and functional components of these systems.

Parks Monitored

Casa Grande Ruins NM, Chiricahua NM, Coronado NMem, Fort Bowie NHS, Gila Cliff Dwellings NM, Organ Pipe Cactus NM, Saguaro NP, Tonto NM

Monitoring Objective

Determine the status and detect trends in all terrestrial National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) plant alliances that occur in SODN parks, with ordinal “stress” values <0.2 (Clarke and Warwick 2001).

Potential Measures

Foliar cover (%) by plant lifeform and strata; Soil cover (%);

Management Applications

Vegetation manipulation is the primary approach for most biological resource management; modifying vegetation is a proven and practical method for achieving wildlife management goals (via habitat manipulation), fire management goals (via fuels modification) and plant ecology goals (via direct or direct alteration of plant interactions). Accounting for soil dynamics provides an important perspective on management issues and stressors that may have long term consequences for terrestrial ecosystem structure and function.

Protocol Development Status

An extensive pilot study is being conducted in 2007-2008 in conjunction with vegetation classification and management efforts.

Status & Trends

Status determinations for Coronado NM, Chiricahua NM, Fort Bowie NHS, Tumacacori NHP, Casa Grande NM, and Tonto NM are ongoing in 2007-2008, with the other units to follow as described in the Pilot Study Plan. Insufficient data will be available to identify trends until several years of data have been collected.

Project Leads

Andy Hubbard, Network Program Manager
Sarah Studd, Ecologist (Vegetation)