Vascular plant inventory, vegetation community classification, mapping, and accuracy assessment report information for Fort Donelson National Battlefield as part of the NPS Vegetation Mapping Inventory Program

The inventory report for Fort Donelson National Battlefield covers the NPS Inventory and Monitoring program's vegetation mapping program. Ecologists from NatureServe established eleven permanently marked one-hectare circular plots within the park in a grid system and another four circular plots in unique ecological areas that were not covered by the initial grid-based plot layout. Ecologists collected data on all unique vegetation communities within the park and identified four natural and nine human-modified or successional vegetation associations (unique ecological assemblages of plants) within the park boundary. Ecologists collected and vouchered ten species new to the park. These species were added to the exhaustive list of existing vouchers collected by Dr. Edward Chester at Austin Peay State University. The species count for the park stands now at 665 documented species (this number does not include subspecies or varieties). NatureServe ecologists estimate that close to 100% of the vascular species of the park are documented. NatureServe worked with photo-interpreters from the Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science (CRMS), Department of Geography, University of Georgia, to complete a vegetation map of all of the communities in the park (Jordan and Madden, 2010). Using the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) developed by Natureserve, with additional classes and modifiers, overstory vegetation communities were interpreted from stereo color infrared aerial photographs using manual interpretation methods. Using a minimum mapping unit of 0.5 hectares (MMU = 0.5 ha), polygons representing areas of relatively uniform vegetation were delineated and annotated on clear plastic overlays registered to the aerial photographs. Polygons were labeled according to the dominant vegetation community. The final step of this project was an accuracy assessment on the map. For FODO, the overall accuracy of the final map, which includes several grouped map classes, is 80%, with a kappa statistic of 0.73 (73%). This version of the map is the most appropriate for use by the standard user; what it misses in fine-scale detail, it makes up for in the relatively high level of accuracy of map classes. The accuracy assessment for this version of the map considered points as a match if the vegetation observed on the ground matched any of the dominant, secondary, or tertiary vegetation types attributed to the map by the mapmaking team. The strictest analysis of the data (before any combining of map classes or NVC associations occurred and considering a point a match only if the vegetation observed on the ground matched the dominant vegetation type attributed by the mappers) showed an overall accuracy of the map of 46% with a kappa statistic of 0.36 (36%). This lower accuracy reflects the difficulty in differentiating the vegetation associations that were combined in the final analysis and that are similar in their composition on the ground and/or in their appearance on aerial photography. The lower accuracy may also indicate successional changes may have occurred between the time of the mapping effort and the accuracy assessment.

Vascular plant inventory, vegetation community classification, mapping, and accuracy assessment report information for Fort Donelson National Battlefield as part of the NPS Vegetation Mapping Inventory Program

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