Plant community composition and structure monitoring at Mount Rushmore National Memorial: 2019 data report
Manuel RM. 2019. Plant community composition and structure monitoring at Mount Rushmore National Memorial: 2019 data report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/MORU/NRDS—2019/1243. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report presents the results of vegetation and forest structure monitoring efforts in 2019 at Mount Rushmore National Memorial (MORU) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN). During the tenth full year of field work at MORU, the NGPN field crew visited six long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots to collect plant community data. Crews collected data relating to species richness, herb-layer height, native and non-native species abundance, tree density, ground cover, and site disturbance from each of these plots. These collective efforts are part of long-term monitoring to help better understand the condition of the plant communities and forests at MORU. Our 2019 findings can be summarized as follows: Monitoring crews identified 85 vascular plant species in plots, of which 13 were exotic species. Average absolute cover of exotic species ranged from 0%-17%. Three species considered rare on the Black Hills National Forest state species list were observed. Seedlings (DBH 15 cm) were found in all six plots. Disturbances were observed in three of six plots, with soil disturbance as the most common.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Manuel, Ryan
- Date of Issue
- 2019-11
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORU , NGPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Forest, Grasslands, mixed-grass prairie, Monitoring, monitoring report, plant community monitor, Plant community monitoring, Plant diversity, Vegetation
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Grassland/Herbaceous Communities , Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Forest/Woodland Communities