Vegetation Monitoring at Natchez Trace Parkway: Results for 2021
Carlson JE. 2023. Vegetation Monitoring at Natchez Trace Parkway: Results for 2021. Gulf Coast I&M Network, Lafayette, LA
The Gulf Coast Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Network completed its first round of vegetation monitoring on the Natchez Trace Parkway between June and September 2021. Thirty-two long-term plots were randomly distributed across all vegetated habitats of five key Parkway sites: Rocky Springs, MS (8 plots); Jeff Busby, MS (5 plots); Chickasaw Village, MS (4 plots); Colbert Ferry, AL (7 plots); and Meriwether Lewis, TN (8 plots). Four of the five focal sites were forested; Chickasaw Village was the only prairie-dominated site. The 32 plots were first visited during the winter months of 2018 and 2019 to install plot markers, tag trees, and assign broad vegetation classes. Crews returned to sample plots during the growing season of 2021, following the methods published in the protocol “Monitoring Terrestrial Vegetation in Gulf Coast Network Parks” and its 11 standard operating procedure documents (Carlson et al. 2018a, b). In short, all plant species were identified in each 400-meter2 (20 x 20 meter) plot, and their coverages and relative frequencies were recorded in nested sampling frames. Data were also collected on forest health, including tree growth, recruitment, and mortality. The first round of sampling was completed on 25 of the 28 forested plots and all 4 of the prairie plots. The remaining three forested plots were not sampled in 2021 due to logistical constraints, but they still had some data from the initial visit in 2019.