Theodore Roosevelt 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 Theodore Roosevelt National Park (THRO). We sampled herbaceous vegetation at 21 long-term monitoring plots in August, and recorded a total of 250 vascular plant species. We visited an additional 21 plots to establish them for future monitoring efforts. This effort was the first year in a multiple-year venture to understand the status of upland and riparian plant communities in THRO. At the end of 5 years, there will be an in-depth report describing the status of the plant communities in the North (THRON) and South (THROS) Units of the park. 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 upland sites at THRO had a large diversity of vascular plants. Average native species richness in the 10 m2 quadrats was 20 species in THROS and 15 species in THRON. Riparian areas were typically less diverse than the upland areas. • Rocky Mountain juniper was the most common component of the forested plots in THRO. We found a high abundance of chokecherry seedlings in some plots. • We identified 2 rare plants in our plots in 2011, white locoweed was found at 2 sites in THROS and smooth goosefoot was found at 1 site in THRON. • The riparian areas of THROS had double the cover of exotic species (35 % cover) compared to THRON and the upland areas of THROS. Leafy spurge, the most ubiquitous exotic target species, was found at 15 of the 43 sites visited in 2011.

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

Series

See also

Collections