Plant community composition and structure monitoring at Badlands National Park: 2018 data report
Ashton IW and Swanson DJ. 2019. Plant community composition and structure monitoring at Badlands National Park: 2018 data report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NGPN/NRDS—2019/1207. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2018 at Badlands National Park (BADL) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire). This was the eighth year of combined monitoring efforts. Crew members from NGPN visited twenty long-term monitoring plots to collect data on the plant communities at BADL. This work is part of a long-term monitoring effort designed to provide a better understanding of the condition of the vegetation community and how it changes over time. NGPN staff measured species richness, herb-layer height, native and non-native species abundance, ground cover, and site disturbance at each of the six plots. In plots where woody species were present, tree regeneration, tall shrub density, tree density, and woody fuel loads were also measured. The NGPFire crew visited an additional 13 plots in the Door and Heck Table Burn Unit to better understand the effects of prescribed fire on vegetation. In 2018, the monitoring crews identified 194 unique plant species in 33 monitoring plots. Of those species, 39 were exotic species. On average, the absolute cover of exotic species was much greater than the absolute cover of native species. No rare species were observed in any of the plots.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Ashton, Isabel; Swanson, Daniel
- Date of Issue
- 2019-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- BADL , NGPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Grasslands, mixed-grass prairie, Monitoring, monitoring report, plant community monitor, Plant community monitoring, Plant diversity, Vegetation