Report on The Trends in The Tree and Shrub Vegetation at Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln City, Indiana: Development of a Vegetation Monitoring Database
Pavlovic NB and Forste L. 2004. Report on The Trends in The Tree and Shrub Vegetation at Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln City, Indiana: Development of a Vegetation Monitoring Database. USGS, Biological Resources Discipline. Porter, IN
Vegetation data has been collected in 1985, 1986, 1997, 2002 and 2003 at Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in southern Indiana. We developed a relational database to store and archive this vegetation data for park management. The Access vegetation database includes data from the tree understory and overstory, shrub and herb layers. The database includes tables concerning locations, times of sampling, canopy cover, soil chemistry, slope and aspect. The plants table includes standardized plant names and their code from Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as well as all known synonyms, plant family, growth form and life form. A unique feature is the table to document and track unknown or unidentified specimens and species for future vegetation sampling. In addition, we analyzed the tree and shrub data to examine vegetation changes from 1985 to 1997. The invasion of sugar maple and exotic Asiatic bush honeysuckles continue to be a problem respectively for the management of the upland hardwood forest and the park in general. Early successional habitats are increasing in diversity and basal area. In the absence of prescribed burning and presence of abundant deer and mesic understory shrubs and saplings, the persistence of oak and hickory are unlikely. If the park wishes to maintain the remnant oak hickory forest and recreate it elsewhere intensive management will be required. Otherwise the forests will develop into mesophytic forests dominated by sugar maple, red maple, and tulip tree.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Pavlovic, Noel; Forste, LuAnn
- Date of Issue
- 2004-05-18
- Publisher
- USGS, Biological Resources Discipline
- Units
- HTLN , LIBO
- Keywords
- HTLN Inventory Vascular Plants