Plant community composition and structure monitoring at Devils Tower National Monument: 2019 data report
Manuel RM and Swanson DJ. 2019. Plant community composition and structure monitoring at Devils Tower National Monument: 2019 data report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/DETO/NRDS—2019/1249. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2019 at Devils Tower National Monument (DETO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire). This was the ninth year of combined monitoring efforts. Crew members from NGPN visited eight long-term monitoring plots to collect data on the plant communities at DETO. The NGPFire crew visited an additional 8 plots in the North Terrace and Graham Burn Units to collect plant community data following prescribed fire. 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 and in response to prescribed fire. NGPN and NGPFire staff measured species richness, herb-layer height, native and non-native species abundance, ground cover, and site disturbance at each of the plots. In plots where woody species were present, tree regeneration, tall shrub density, tree density, and woody fuel loads were measured. In 2019, monitoring crews identified 151 unique plant species in 14 monitoring plots. Of those species, 27 were exotic species. On average, the absolute cover of native species was greater than the absolute cover of exotic species. There were no state-listed noxious species or rare species observed in 2019. Trees were present in only 10 of the plots and these were dominated by ponderosa pine. Seedling density was highly variable with many sites having none and others had more than one thousand stems per hectare.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Manuel, Ryan; Swanson, Daniel
- Date of Issue
- 2019-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DETO , NGPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Grasslands, mixed-grass prairie, Monitoring, monitoring report, plant community monitor, Plant community monitoring, Plant diversity, ponderosa, riparian, Vegetation