Badlands National Park plant community composition and structure monitoring: 2011 annual report

Ashton, Isabel; Prowatzke, Michael; Bynumm, Michael; Wilson, Stephen; Paintner-Green, Kara

The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network (NGPN) was established to develop and provide scientifically credible information on the current status and long-term trends of the composition, structure, and function of ecosystems in thirteen parks located in 5 northern Great Plains states. NGPN identified upland plant communities, exotic plant early detection, and riparian lowland communities as vital signs that can be used to better understand the condition of terrestrial park ecosystems. Upland and riparian ecosystems are important targets for vegetation monitoring because the status and trends in plant communities provide critical insights into the status and trends of other biotic components within those ecosystems. In 2011, NGPN began plant community monitoring in Badlands National Park (BADL). We visited 20 long-term monitoring plots from June 20-30th, 2011, and recorded a total of 196 vascular plant species. This effort was the first year in a multiple-year venture to understand the status of upland plant communities in BADL. At the end of 5 years, there will be an in-depth report describing the status of the plant community. In this report, we provide a simple summary of our results from sampling in 2011. We found the following:  There was considerable variation among plots in vegetation across the plots at BADL. Some sites were barren badlands and others were lush grasslands. While on average bare soil was 57% of ground cover, canopy cover was high due to the wet spring. Grasses and sedges made up the bulk of vascular plant cover at all sites.  The sites at BADL had a moderate diversity of vascular plants. Average native species richness in the 10 m 2 quadrats was 10 ± 3.8 species. Forbs, or broad-leaved herbaceous plants, were more diverse than graminoids, despite making up less of the total cover.  Exotic species occurred in all plots we visited and were quite abundant; however, we did not record any target species as part of our exotic species early detection efforts.  At 1 site, we found a rare plant, Barr’s milkvetch (Astragalus barrii). This plant is endemic to southwestern South Dakota and considered rare globally.  The most common natural disturbance in plots at BADL was from prairie dogs, but many plots showed no signs of disturbance.

Badlands National Park plant community composition and structure monitoring: 2011 annual report

Series

See also

Collections