Vegetation Structure and Composition Monitoring in the Central Alaska Network of National Parklands
Roland C, Nicklen EF, Stehn S. Vegetation Structure and Composition Monitoring in the Central Alaska Network of National Parklands. 2004. National Park Service
The flora of Central Alaska Network’s parklands, including vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens contains more than 2000 species. Our flora is thus one of the richest elements of Central Alaska’s biodiversity. In addition to its intrinsic value, vegetation is important because it forms the energetic foundation of all terrestrial ecosystems, and most other forms of life depend on primary producers either directly or indirectly. In addition, many plant species (such as trees and shrubs) define physical structure of habitat for other species, including many birds, insects, and small mammals. Each plant species plays a unique role in the ecosystems of Central Alaska, and we collect information on more species in the vegetation monitoring program than all other monitored species in Alaska parks combined. Vegetation patterns are controlled by physical factors including landscape position and topography, temperature, precipitation, substrate type and disturbance regime. Vegetation patterns are also influenced by plant-animal interactions such as herbivory. Quantifying the relationships among plant community structure and composition and important environmental attributes is fundamental to understanding why plant species grow where they do and how ecological changes may impact our vegetation and other park resources. Management decisions must be grounded in a clear understanding of our landscapes and how they function, including the important drivers of vegetation patterns. Changing environmental conditions that are expected to impact vegetation include a warming climate and increasing climatic variability, shifting atmospheric chemistry and pollutant loads, and increasing variability in plant pathogens and pests. The resulting changes in plant species composition, distribution or phenology could alter ecosystem functions such as energy and nutrient exchange, carbon storage, biomass production and affect plant-animal interactions and habitat extent. Without baseline information, however, quantifying important changes is impossible. Thus, long term vegetation monitoring essential to detecting and understanding vegetation change.
- Type
- Project
- Authors
- Roland, Carl; Nicklen, E.; Stehn, Sarah
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CAKN , DENA , WRST , YUCH
- Keywords
- Alaska, Denali, Monitoring, National Park, St. Elias, Vegetation, Wrangell
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Vegetation Complex
Program
Products
- A notable range extension for the globally rare endemic plant, Cryptantha shackletteana L.C. Higgins, in East-central Alaska
- LTEM - Tree Measurements in Rock Creek
- The Floristics and Community Ecology of Extrazonal Steppe in the Yukon and Kolyma River Drainages
- Arctic steppe survey Charley and Kandik River Sites, June-July, 1991
- Arctic steppe survey Yukon River sites 1990
- LTEM - Cover measurements within vegetation plots
- Borealization and its discontents: drivers of regional variation in plant diversity across scales in interior Alaska
- Bottom-up processes drive reproductive success in an apex predator
- A Lichen Species List for Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, with Comments on Several New and Noteworthy Records
- Climate sensitivity of reproduction in a mast-seeding boreal conifer across its distributional range from lowland to treeline forests
- A Bryophyte Species List for Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, with Comments on Several New and Noteworthy Records
- Landscape-scale patterns in tree occupancy and abundance in subarctic Alaska
- Patterns in the occupancy and abundance of the globally rare lichen Erioderma pedicellatum in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska
- Monitoring Vegetation in the Central Alaska Network
- White spruce cone and seed production in relation to climate in the Rock Creek watershed of Denali National Park and Preserve during the period 1992-2007: Annual report for the Central Alaska Network Vegetation Monitoring Program 2008
- 2009 CAKN vegetation monitoring Trip Reports
- 2007 Trip Reports: CAKN Vegetation Structure and Composition Monitoring
- 2006 CAKN Vegetation Monitoring Program Trip Reports
- Middle Teklanika River Mini-Grid Vegetation Data Summary and Analysis
- Monitoring vegetation structure and composition at multiple spatial scales in the Central Alaska Network
- Searching for refuge: A framework for identifying site factors conferring resistance to climate-driven vegetation change
- 2010 Trip Reports for the Central Alaska Network Vegetation Monitoring Program
- An Inventory of the Vascular Flora Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska
- Ecological Overview of Denali National Park and Preserve
- Erioderma pedicellatum (Hue) P. M. Jørg., new to the United States and western North America, discovered in Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, Alaska.
- Historical photos and modern sampling provide insights into climate-related vegetation changes in central Alaska
- Long term ecological monitoring program: Evaluation of a study design for detecting ecological change in Denali National Park and Preserve at multiple scales, Volume 2
- LTEM - Annual estimates of annual radial growth of selected white spruce trees within the permanent vegetation plots
- LTEM - Annual estimates of number of cones produced by selected trees within permanent vegetation plots
- LTEM - Annual estimates of white spruce seed rain within the permanent vegetation plots
- Notable vascular plants from Alaska in Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve with comments on the floristics.
- Results of an Inventory of the Vascular Plants of Yukon Charley Rivers National Park and Preserve
- The Vascular Plant Floristics of Denali National Park and Preserve: A Summary, Including the Results of Plant Inventory Fieldwork 1998-2001
- Timing is everything – monitoring plant phenology in the Central Alaska Network
- A diverse alpine species pool drives a ‘reversed’ plant species richness–elevation relationship in 1 interior Alaska
- Aspen phenology monitoring in the Central Alaska Network of the National Park Service: Technical Report 2010
- Detecting continuous lichen abundance for mapping winter caribou forage at landscape spatial scales
- How will the greening of the Arctic affect an important prey species and disturbance agent? Vegetation effects on arctic ground squirrels
- New and important vascular plant collections from south-central and southwestern Alaska: a region of floristic convergence
- Non-parametric methods reveal non-linear functional trait variation of lichens along environmental and fire age gradients
- Proliferating poplars: The leading edge of landscape change in an Alaskan subalpine chronosequence
- Rapidly shifting elevational distributions of passerine species parallel vegetation change in the subarctic
- Species richness of multiple functional groups peaks in alpine tundra in subarctic Alaska
- Weather-driven change in primary productivity explains variation in the amplitude of two herbivore population cycles in a boreal system
- A structural equation model linking past and present plant diversity in Alaska: a framework for evaluating future change
- Aspen phenology monitoring protocol for the Central Alaska Network: plot establishment, field measurements, and data management
- Concordant community similarity patterns across functional groups in subarctic plant assemblages
- Divergent responses to permafrost and precipitation reveal mechanisms for the spatial variation of two sympatric spruce
- Dynamic disequilibrium: recent widespread increases in vegetation cover on subarctic floodplains of Interior Alaska (2022, Ecosphere)
- Environment drives spatio-temporal patterns of clonality in white spruce (Picea glauca) in Alaska
- Evaluating multiple historical climate products in ecological models under current and projected temperatures
- Evaluating relocation extent versus covariate resolution in habitat selection models across spatiotemporal scales
- Exotic plants in Alaskan national park units
- Impacts of pre-fire conifer density and wildfire severity on ecosystem structure and function at the forest-tundra ecotone
- Lichen cover mapping for caribou ranges in interior Alaska and Yukon
- Modelling high‐latitude summer temperature patterns using physiographic variables
- Photo Gallery - Regional Variation in Interior Alaskan Boreal Forests is Driven by Fire Disturbance, Topography, and Climate
- Regional variation in interior Alaskan boreal forests is driven by fire disturbance, topography, and climate
- Repeated Permafrost Formation and Degradation in Boreal Peatland Ecosystems in Relation to Climate Extremes, Fire, Ecological Shifts, and a Geomorphic Legacy
- Stand basal area and solar radiation amplify white spruce climate sensitivity in interior Alaska: Evidence from carbon isotopes and tree rings
- Variability in the expansion of trees and shrubs in boreal Alaska
- Integrated Monitoring of Physical Environment, Plant, and Bird Communities in Denali
- Local site conditions drive climate–growth responses of Picea mariana and Picea glauca in interior Alaska
- A Recipe for Plant Diversity in Subarctic Alaska
- Alaska's Changing Vegetation Processes and Patterns: Plant Responses to Unprecedented Levels of Warming in the Far North
- Bridging implementation gaps to connect large ecological datasets and complex models
- Diurnal temperature range as a key predictor of plants’ elevation ranges globally
- Increasing fire and the decline of fire adapted black spruce in the boreal forest
- Latent trajectory models for spatio-temporal dynamics in Alaskan ecosystems
- Multivariate Bayesian clustering using covariate-informed components with application to boreal vegetation sensitivity
- Tree and shrub expansion at treeline drive contrasting responses in a subarctic passerine community
- Relationships between the weather and phenology of Populus tremuloides in interior Alaska in recent decades
- Dynamic disequilibrium: Recent widespread increases in vegetation cover on subarctic floodplains of Interior Alaska
- Genetic basis of growth reaction to drought stress differs in contrasting high-latitude treeline ecotones of a widespread conifer
- Floristic Inventory Project Annual Report, 1999, Denali National Park and Preserve
- Glacial legacies influence riparian vegetation expansion on subarctic Alaska floodplains (2026, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)