Gulf Coast Network Terrestrial Vegetation Monitoring Project

Carlson, Jane; Granger, Whitney; Bracewell, Jeff

The Gulf Coast I & M Network (GULN) monitors terrestrial vegetation in long-term plots on eight national parks in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. These parks are Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (JELA); Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park (PAAL); Natchez Trace Parkway (NATR); Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS); Padre Islands National Seashore (PAIS); Vicksburg National Military Park (VICK); San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (SAAN); and Big Thicket National Preserve (BITH). Each park has between 10 and 56 randomly-selected plots, scaled for the size of the park or focal park unit. Monitored habitats include semi-arid scrublands, coastal dunes, prairies, pine savannas, upland forests, marshes, and swamps. This project contains all information associated with the monitoring protocol and its products. Vegetation communities are monitored in permanently-marked plots that are randomly located within naturally vegetated areas of parks or focal park units. Plots are 20 x 20 meters in size, and within them, data are collected on species richness, per-species coverage, per-species frequency and several forest-related metrics. All adult trees are identified to species and marked with a unique ID number, and their diameter at breast height (DBH) and condition are tracked over time. In four 10 m^2 microplots and eight 1 m^2 quadrats nested within the full plot, additional data are collected on percent cover of each plant species present, with a focus on non-tree species. At the 10 m^2 microplot size, the numbers of juvenile trees of each tree species are also counted into three size classes (seedlings, small saplings [DBH 1 to 5], and large saplings [DBH >5 to <10]). Finally, nested frequency data are recorded for all vascular plant species using three differently sized sampling units for each full plot: 1m^2, 10m^2 and 100 m^2. Site condition and other environmental covariates are also recorded. Large portions of the Gulf Coast Network's monitoring approach are based on the Northeast Temperate Network Long term forest monitoring protocol. The webpage for this project is https://www.nps.gov/im/guln/terrestrial-vegetation.htm

Gulf Coast Network Terrestrial Vegetation Monitoring Project

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