Plant community monitoring for redwood forest in the San Francisco Bay Area Network: 2015 annual report
Wrubel E, Denn M, Spooner S. 2019. Plant community monitoring for redwood forest in the San Francisco Bay Area Network: 2015 annual report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/SFAN/NRDS—2019/1228. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report summarizes monitoring data collected in redwood forest vegetation in 2015 by the San Francisco Bay Area Inventory and Monitoring Network (SFAN), under its Plant Community Monitoring Protocol (Steers et al. 2016a), which tracks changes in vegetation structure and composition over time in select plant communities. SFAN established and monitored 18 permanent plots in redwood forest vegetation at Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore in 2015, the first year of protocol implementation in a four-year sampling cycle. The monitoring plots were each located in a separate stand of redwood forest vegetation, randomly selected from the park vegetation map. Each plot was established at a random point within the stand, and was delimited by a 17.95m radius circle. The plots contain a 7.32m radius subplot, with three 15m transects radiating from the plot center, each with a 1m2 quadrat placed equidistant from the plot center. Field observers measured vegetation structure and composition metrics in the plots using several sub-protocols. We summarize data at the square meter scale for vascular plant cover by taxa, total live and dead vegetation cover, total live and dead herbaceous cover, total native and non-native herbaceous cover, litter, bare ground, total foliar cover, and taxonomic richness. We summarize percent cover data from the 12m transects for woody plant and vine taxa, herbaceous plants, litter, and bare ground. At the 168m2 scale we report mean taxonomic richness, frequency of taxa, and number of taxa by life form and nativeness. We estimate tree density, basal area, and tree seedling density, per hectare. We report on occurrences of special-status and invasive plants, provide qualitative field notes, and present an appendix listing all vascular plants observed among all the plots.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Wrubel, Eric; Denn, Marie; Spooner, Sierra
- Date of Issue
- 2019-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GOGA , NRSS , PORE , SFAN
- Keywords
- Annual Report, Monitoring, Plant Communities, Redwood Forest, Vegetation