PACN Monitoring Established Invasive Plant Species
Gross J . PACN Monitoring Established Invasive Plant Species. 2010. National Park Service
The Pacific Island Network (PACN) is monitoring nonnative plant species that are established, but still rare in four focal terrestrial plant communities across five national parks within the PACN. Nonnative plant species present a serious threat to Pacific Island ecosystems. Invasion by nonnative plants reduces native plant diversity and abundance, alters vegetation structure, and can lead to significant economic and cultural costs. Nonnative species that have a high potential to severely impact the integrity of terrestrial plant communities and biological diversity through competition and displacement are labeled “invasive.” Prevention of invasion or at least detecting invaders during the initial stages paired with rapid response is the most cost effective defense against invasive species. Once invasive species become established in focal plant communities, detailed distribution and abundance data are necessary to prioritize control efforts. Long-term monitoring of established nonnative plant species in focal terrestrial plant communities is critical for the effective management of these native ecosystems in PACN parks. These data aid in the identification of new invasive nonnative plant species within specific community types. Due to the high costs of invasive plant management, managers do not have sufficient funds to control all nonnative plant species within focal plant communities. Monitoring provides essential information about the frequency, distribution, and abundance of nonnative species, allowing them to assess changing threats to native ecosystems, formulate appropriate control strategies, and prioritize areas and species for management. Long-term monitoring allows resource managers to evaluate the efficacy of previous management actions such as herbicide treatments, biological controls, ungulate removal, and fencing. PACN parks have made efforts to confront invasive plant species on some level , although to date, most invasive plant monitoring has been conducted in Hawaiian Island parks. Even within these parks invasive plant species monitoring has generally been limited to small spatial and temporal scales and focused primarily on invasive plant control efficacy. Each park will be surveyed once every five years, on a rotating basis, by a team of scientists and technicians who will report presence of nonnative plant species found in contiguous subplots along randomly located transects. In addition, for a select set of target species cover classes are assigned. Target species are identified prior to each field season with the assistance of park resource managers and will include all known invasives and any species currently controlled within the plant community. Fixed and rotational transects will be surveyed using a split panel design. This design allows for the use of permanent, fixed panel transects to detect temporal changes and temporary, rotational panel transects to assess status as well as increase spatial sampling over time. Together fixed and rotational transects provide greater ecological and statistical inference than either method alone. After each field season, data will be analyzed and an annual report produced. Nonnative species richness and the frequency of each nonnative species are calculated from the presence/ absence data. Cover data aids managers with control prioritization and logistics and can provide a finer scale for detecting change over time. Data from the contiguous plots along each belt transect are used to generate thematic maps of nonnative plant distributions using GIS and provide additional information to resource managers who benefit from precise location data of nonnative species. After each five-year cycle, the project lead will produce a more comprehensive report focusing on broader spatial and temporal trends in the data for all parks surveyed.
- Type
- Project
- Authors
- Gross, Jacob
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- AMME , HALE , HAVO , KAHO , KALA , NPSA , PACN
- Keywords
- invasive plants, monitoring, nonnative plants, species cover, species frequency, species richness
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Invasive Species | Invasive/Exotic plants
Program
Products
- Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol: Pacific Island Network
- SOP #01: Before the Field Season. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #02: Training Observers. Version 1.02. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #03: Safety Protocol. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #04: Sanitation Protocol. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #05: Transect Generation. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #06: Using Garmin GPS Units. Version 2.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #07: Downloading and Uploading Data from/to a Garmin GPS. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #08: Using ArcGIS Field Maps Application. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #10: Collecting and Vouchering. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #11: After the Field Season. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #12: Workspace Setup and Project Records Management. Version 2.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #13: Datasheet Handling Procedures. Version 1.02. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #15: Data Entry and Verification. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #16: Post-season Data Quality Review and Certification. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #17: Metadata Development. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #18: Sensitive Information Procedures. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #19: Product Delivery Specifications. Version 1.02. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #20: Product Posting and Distribution. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #21: Statistical Data Analysis. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #22: Reporting. Version 1.01. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- SOP #23: Revising the Protocol. Version 1.02. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- Established invasive plant species monitoring: Haleakalā National Park 2012 summary report
- Established invasive plant species monitoring: Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
- Vegetation Monitoring at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: Kahuku Wet Forest Plant Community 2011 - 2022
- Vegetation Monitoring at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: Nāhuku / East Rift, Wet Forest Plant Community 2010 - 2021
- Vegetation Monitoring at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: Subalpine Shrubland Plant Community 2011 - 2022
- Vegetation Monitoring at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: ʻŌlaʻa Wet Forest Plant Community 2010 - 2021
- Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Dataset 2010-2023
- SOP #14: Managing Photographic Images. Version 3.0. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
- Aliens Among Us
- Between the Trees and the Peak
- Controlling Strawberry Guava's Invasion
- Established Invasive Plants Monitoring
- I. Converges with M. on the Kalaupapa Coast to Make a B.L.T.
- SOP #09: Conducting Invasive Plant Species Surveys. Version 2.02. Pacific Island Network Established Invasive Plant Species Monitoring Protocol. Unpublished National Park Service Report, Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network, Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.