Wind Cave 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 Wind Cave National Park (WICA). We sampled vegetation at 13 long-term monitoring plots between July 5-21st and on September 7th and recorded a total of 258 vascular plant species. We visited an additional 14 plots to establish them for future monitoring. This effort was the first year in a multiple-year venture to understand the status of upland plant communities in WICA. At the end of 5 years, there will be an in-depth report describing the status of the plant communities. In this report, we provide a simple summary of our results from sampling in 2011. We found the following: • Absolute vascular plant cover was high due to a wet spring and grasses and sedges made up the bulk of vascular plant cover at all sites. • The sites at WICA had a large diversity of vascular plants. Average native species richness in the 10 m 2 quadrats was 21 ± 3.2 species (mean ± standard deviation). • Ponderosa pine was the most common component of the 8 forest plots in WICA. Few of the live ponderosa pine trees we surveyed in 2011 showed signs of insects or decay. • We identified 2 rare plants in our plots at WICA: buff fleabane (Erigeron ochroleucus) and nylon hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus viridiflorus). • The number of exotic species was relatively low in all sites, with a relative cover of 13% across the plots. Japanese brome, the most ubiquitous exotic target species, was found at 16 of the 27 sites visited in 2011, but in low abundance.

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

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