Northeast Temperate Network Long-term Forest Monitoring
Mitchell B and Miller K. Northeast Temperate Network Long-term Forest Monitoring
Supporting documents and datasets associated with implimentation of the Northeast Temperate Network's Long-term Forest Helath Monitoring Protocol. The overall goal is to monitor status and trends in the structure, function and condition of NETN forested ecosystems in order to inform management decisions affecting those systems. The plot based approach collects a variety of landscape structure, stand structure, tree, understory, and soil metrics. First year of data collection was 2005. Our overall goal is to monitor status and trends in the structure, function and condition of NETN forested ecosystems in order to inform management decisions affecting those systems. To do so, NETN will interpret and report the ecological integrity of NETN forested systems from monitoring data. The “ecological integrity” of an ecosystem is a measure of the structure, composition, and function of an ecosystem as compared to pristine or benchmark ecosystems operating within the bounds of natural or historic disturbance regimes (Karr and Dudley 1981, Parrish et al. 2003). Ecological integrity can be assessed by comparing key elements or attributes of an ecosystem to a reference area or to historical measurements or modeling efforts. In this way, NETN hopes to provide reliable data to inform management decisions relevant to NETN forested systems, including NPS land management and forest harvest plans, exotic species control, deer population management, NPS internal development, and national pollution control legislation. This protocol primarily addresses the NETN Forest Vegetation Vital Sign. However, some measures also address related Vital Signs selected by NETN as high priority. These include Acidic Deposition & Stress, White-tailed Deer Herbivory, Exotic Plants—Early Detection, Exotic Animals—Early Detection, Landcover and Landuse.