Moving beyond the minimum: The addition of nonvascular plant inventories to vegetation research in Alaska’s national parks
Walton J and Stehn S. 2014. Moving beyond the minimum: The addition of nonvascular plant inventories to vegetation research in Alaska’s national parks. Park Science. 31(1):62-69
Alaska’s national parks encompass a wide range of habitat types and climate gradients known to support a rich and diverse flora. At such northern latitudes, nonvascular plants, particularly bryophytes and lichens, contribute a significant portion to overall biomass and biodiversity, provide a wide range of ecosystem functions, and can serve as important indicators of air quality and climate change. A number of Alaskan parks have recently completed or are conducting comprehensive inventories that are documenting extraordinary nonvascular plant diversity. Alaska’s Inventory and Monitoring networks have also developed vegetation and air quality vital-sign monitoring programs that include nonvascular plant communities in their baseline sampling. University partnerships have played an important role in contributing to our understanding of nonvascular vegetation communities in Alaska’s national parks. Such collaboration has provided a strong foundation for future studies and has enhanced NPS efforts toward resource management goals.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Walton, James; Stehn, Sara
- Units
- BELA , CAKR , DENA , GAAR , KATM , KEFJ , KLGO , LACL , WRST , YUCH
- Keywords
- Air Quality, Alaska, biological surveys, Bryophytes, Lichens, Monitoring, nonvascular plants, Vegetation