A Study Plan to the Inventory of Vascular Plants and Vertebrates in the South Florida/Caribbean Network of the National Park Service

Sasso, Christopher; Patterson, Matt

This plan highlights the goals of the Inventory and Monitoring branch of the National Park Service, and then focuses on the South Florida/Caribbean Network's program for inventory. This includes the current status, staffing, study design, data management, and individual projects. Biscayne National Park, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Dry Tortugas National Park, Everglades National Park, and Virgin Islands National Park. Although these six parks are distributed over a distance of more than 1,200 miles, they share a tropical environment, with certain special characteristics making each Park unique. The National Park Service has grouped these six parks together to implement the natural resource Inventory and Monitoring Program. The Vertebrate and Vascular Plant Inventory is a major step towards gaining solid scientific baseline data for use with the long term monitoring program. Initial research was conducted during 2000 to identify species from all available sources by visiting each of the parks. This research, contracted to the University of Miami, was conducted by a team of biologists who spent time at each park reviewing gray literature, species lists, and all other sources of species information. The intent of this effort was to complete an exhaustive literature, records, and other ancillary data search in order to augment the known composition of each park's NPSpecies database. This data set was reviewed in the last week of September 2000 by network parks resource management personnel and outside experts to authenticate these records, and flag those records that were questionable in terms of originating from a credible source, or occurring currently in the park. These reviewed species lists have allowed the network to identify data gaps and prioritize network needs. The goal of the Vertebrate and Vascular Plant Inventory is to identify 90% of the species present in each of the following categories (Mammals, Fish, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Vascular Plants) in each of the parks. Some parks have been well surveyed and have exceeded the 90% level for some categories, while others require in-depth inventories to achieve this goal (Table 1). The Vertebrate and Vascular Plant Inventory Study Plan addresses meets the network's needs for attaining the 90% goal. This includes the methods used to inventory the data gaps, the proposed staffing and budget, and a timeline. The network has been working with a proposed budget of $1,398,000 for a five year period to accomplish the required inventories, contribute data to servicewide NPS data initiatives, and begin planning for long term monitoring.

A Study Plan to the Inventory of Vascular Plants and Vertebrates in the South Florida/Caribbean Network of the National Park Service

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