Monitoring forest vegetation in the North Coast and Cascades Network: 2013 annual report
Acker SA, Boetsch JR, Bivin M, Whiteaker L, Cole C. 2014. Monitoring forest vegetation in the North Coast and Cascades Network: 2013 annual report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NCCN/NRDS—2014/677. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Late-successional, coniferous forest is critical for ecosystem function and biological conservation in the Pacific Northwest. Such forests are well-represented in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) of the National Park Service. As part of monitoring natural resources within the NCCN, we track trends in tree recruitment, growth, and mortality. Sampled forests span the range of environments in network parks, at elevations from near sea-level to almost 1800 m. Field activities in 2013 consisted of identification of newly-recruited trees, measurement of live trees and snags, and recording of tree mortality at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park Service Complex, and Olympic National Park. This report concerns observations of tree mortality in 2013. Tree recruitment observed in 2013 and patterns of tree mortality observed between 2009 and 2013 will be the subjects of the five-year synthesis report to be prepared beginning in FY2014. The rate of tree mortality observed in 2013 averaged over all elevations and parks was 1.15%, just outside of the range observed previously for this project. The relatively high average rate of mortality was evidently not due to events at a small subset of the plots, inasmuch as five of the seven combinations of elevation and park had average mortality rates greater than 1%. As in previous years, most newly-dead trees died standing. As in most of the previous years, a particular cause of death could not be identified for the majority of newly-dead trees.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Acker, Steven; Boetsch, John; Bivin, Mignonne; Whiteaker, Lou; Cole, Carla
- Date of Issue
- 2014-07
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- LEWI , MORA , NOCA , NRSS , OLYM
- Keywords
- annual report, Bark Beetle, coniferous, Disease, Forest, forest monitoring, Generalized Randomized-Tesselation Stratified, Growth, GRTS, Insects, late-successional, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Monitoring, Mortality, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, North Coast and Cascades Network, Olympic National Park, Permanent Plot, San Juan Island National Historical Park, tree recruitment
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Forest/Woodland Communities