Integrated Monitoring of Physical Environment, Plant, and Bird Communities in Denali
McIntyre CL and Roland CA. 2006. Integrated Monitoring of Physical Environment, Plant, and Bird Communities in Denali. Alaska Park Science. 5(1):46-48
The physical environment strongly affects vegetation patterns in Alaska, and songbird communities are tied to vegetation patterns.In designing a long-term monitoring pro-gram for Denali, we saw an opportunity to collect integrated data to better understand how the ecosystem functions as a whole and to delineate the specific relationships among these elements of the biota. We developed a sampling design where repeated observations of the physical environment, vegetation and birds are made at randomly selected points (Roland et al. 2003).This design will allow detection of changes in the ecosystem at a landscape scale, for long periods of time. The sampling design is comprised of five rows of five plots, all 547 yards (500 m) apart, arranged in a grid pattern at each study area. These“mini-grids” are themselves arranged on a macro-grid with 6.2 miles (10 km) spacing.By utilizing a randomized site selection procedure, the program provided unbiased data about the status and trend of park resources over large spatial scales.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- McIntyre, Carol; Roland, Carl
- Units
- DENA
- Keywords
- Birds, Denali National Park and Preserve, Integrated Monitoring, Physical Environment, Plants