Camas monitoring at Big Hole National Battlefield: 2014 annual report
Stucki DS and Rodhouse TJ. 2015. Camas monitoring at Big Hole National Battlefield: 2014 annual report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/UCBN/NRDS—2015/974. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This annual report details findings from the 2014 camas monitoring season at BIHO. Trend analysis for the BIHO camas population over the period 2006-2010 was provided by Rodhouse et al. (2011), who reported an overall estimate of 3% per year increase, on average, in the median number of established camas plants/ m2, excluding seedlings, but with a relatively wide 95% Bayesian credible interval (CRI) of -2% – 7%, indicating uncertainty in both the direction and magnitude of the trend. We will report on further trend analysis encompassing 10 years of monitoring data in 2015. In 2014, based on counts of camas in one-hundred-fifty-two 0.6 m2 quadrats, mean density of established camas plants/m2 was estimated to be 3.4 (90% confidence interval 2.3-4.6). This was considerably lower than the 2013 estimate of 6.1 plants/m2. Estimated mean density of flowering camas plants/m2 was 0.8 (90% confidence interval 0.6-1.1), also down from 2013. Flowering plant density is typically more variable than overall established plant density. It is unclear what has led to the decline in camas density, but this will be investigated further after 10 years of monitoring has been completed. In 2013, Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) was found in 3 plots (~2% frequency of occurrence). This was the first year that this invasive species was encountered in plots, although observations outside of plots have been increasing in recent years. In 2014, no Canada thistle plants were encountered within plots.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Stucki, Devin; Rodhouse, Thomas
- Date of Issue
- 2015-09
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- BIHO , NRSS , UCBN
- Keywords
- Big Hole, Camas Monitoring, Camassia quamash