Terrestrial vegetation monitoring at Canaveral National Seashore: 2022 data summary—version 1.1
Boyle MF . 2024. Terrestrial vegetation monitoring at Canaveral National Seashore: 2022 data summary—version 1.1. Science Report. NPS/SR—2024/186. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2305810
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. Canaveral National Seashore lies within the Southern Coastal Plain ecoregion of Florida. The distribution and composition of vegetation communities within the park are largely determined by former land-use patterns, climate influences, 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 and rapidly changing climate patterns and sea-level rise. Other threats to the vegetation resources of Canaveral National Seashore include fire exclusion, feral hogs, and competition from invasive non-native vegetation. 2022 marked the first year of conducting this monitoring effort at Canaveral National Seashore. Fourteen vegetation plots were established throughout the park in April. 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. Plot locations were stratified across two land parcels of the park (Apollo Beach and Oak Hill) and across two dominant broadly defined habitats: Maritime Upland Forests and Shrublands and Coastal Plain Upland Open Woodlands. One hundred seventy-six vascular plant taxa were detected during this monitoring effort, including eight taxa not detected in previous lists.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Boyle, M.
- Date of Issue
- 2024-09
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2305810
- Units
- CANA , NRSS , SECN