Field data for the Vegetation Mapping Inventory Project of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
2002-2003. Field data for the Vegetation Mapping Inventory Project of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
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. Field Survey The development of an alliance-level vegetation map requires quantitative information sufficient to identify and classify vegetation alliances. An alliance, as defined by the NVCS (Grossman et al. 1998), “is a physiognomically uniform group of plant associations sharing one or more dominant or diagnostic species, which as a rule are found in the uppermost stratum of the vegetation.” A total of 13 formation-level polygon types were initially identified in the park during air photo interpretation. Of these, six formations were considered anthropogenic, and three were not sampled (orchard, developed land, and transportation corridor). Orchards were limited to active apple orchards near the Hopewell Furnace NHS visitor center. Developed land included buildings and associated mowed lawns, and any other park infrastructure other than roads. Transportation corridors included roads and mowed shoulders as well as parking lots. Of the remaining three (right-of-way, cropland, and medium-tall sod temperate or subpolar grassland), either quantitative plots were sampled or species lists developed. The seven “natural” formations (not directly impacted by routine human management/activity) were sampled by assigning one to 22 plots per formation distributed across the park. Twenty-two plots were sampled in the lowland or submontane cold-deciduous forest formation as it contained several alliances and covered approximately 70% of the park. Formations sampled only once typically were limited to a single small polygon within the park.
- Type
- Assemblage
- Units
- HOFU , MIDN , VMI
- Keywords
- Accuracy Assessment, botanical survey, Classification, Geodatabase, Habitat Types, Imagery, National Vegetation Classification, NVC, NVCS, Plots, Releve, Relevé, Remote Sensing, USNVCS, Vegetation, Vegetation Inventory, Vegetation Map, Vegetation Mapping