Field data for the Vegetation Mapping Inventory Project of Petrified Forest National Park

This reference is an assemblage of field data collected as part the baseline vegetation inventory for the park unit. Typical files here are vegetation plot data, accuracy assessment data, field photos, PDF showing locations of vegetation plots and accuracy assessment data, and other data for this type. In 2003, a field team led by M. McTeague collected plant-community data in the form of cover/abundance values for individual plant species in 149 relevé plots. The sampling design stratified the park landscape into unique biophysical types for relevé allocation. This approach assumed that environmental variables drive vegetation patterns at PEFO and that a stratification based on environmental variables would assure adequate sampling across the range of plant-community variability. The biophysical types were derived by layering spatial data for aspect, elevation, watercourse presence, and geology in a GIS environment and identifying each unique combination as one type. The project team described 39 plant communities for PEFO; 38 of which were described from quantitative classification based on field-relevé data collected in 1996 and 2003. The team derived one additional plant community from field observations during the photointerpretation phase of the project and field documented it during accuracy assessment.