Terrestrial vegetation monitoring at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park: 2022 data summary
Boyle M and Davis M . 2024. Terrestrial vegetation monitoring at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park: 2022 data summary. Science Report. NPS/SR—2024/160. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2305166
Parks within the Southeast Coast Network (SECN) host a diverse assemblage of plants and terrestrial vegetation communities. Vegetation communities are dynamic entities whose species composition, abundance, distribution, and structure are influenced by environmental factors and impacted over time by natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Determining trends in vegetation communities over time and identifying plant stressors is vital to understanding the ecological health of terrestrial ecosystems within SECN parks. Horseshoe Bend National Military Park lies within the Southern Inner Piedmont ecoregion of Alabama. The distribution and composition of forested habitats within the park are largely determined by former land-use patterns (including clearing land for agriculture and timber removal), as well as by localized edaphic conditions. Stressors and threats to vegetation resources are present within the park, many of which are related to large-scale land-use changes of the 19th and 20th centuries, current impacts from upstream and downstream dams along the Tallapoosa River, and adjacent land use. Other threats to the vegetation resources of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park include over-population of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), outbreaks of southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), and competition from invasive non-native vegetation. 2022 marked the first year of conducting this monitoring effort at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. Ten vegetation plots were established throughout the park in August. Data collected in each plot included species richness across multiple spatial scales, species-specific cover and constancy, species-specific woody stem seedling/sapling counts and adult tree diameter at breast height (DBH), overall tree health, landform, soil, observed disturbance, and woody biomass estimates. Data were stratified across two dominant broadly defined habitats within the park: Piedmont Alluvial Wetlands and Piedmont Upland Forests. One hundred ninety-nine vascular plant taxa were detected during this monitoring effort, including 54 taxa not detected in previous lists.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Boyle, Maxwell; Davis, Mallorie
- Date of Issue
- 2024-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2305166
- Units
- HOBE , NRSS , SECN
- Keywords
- ecosystem health, invasive species, terrestrial communities, vegetation