Tree and Shrub Community Monitoring Protocol for California Islands National Park, California
McEachern K. 2000. Tree and Shrub Community Monitoring Protocol for California Islands National Park, California. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Open-File Report. USGS Open-File Report: 2000-74. USGS. Sacramento, CA
Shrubs and trees should respond to the cessation of grazing in several ways: with increased canopy growth, additional stem production, and for certain species, with seedling recruitment. Therefore, the method for monitoring these changes will record canopy coverage, stem density, plant size and recruitment. Additionally, conservation strategies written for the islands (Coonan et al 1996) identify litter accumulation as an important process for seed bank development and eventual community recovery. Therefore, litter sampling is included as a component of the monitoring protocol, to be conducted at 5-year intervals. Finally, ungulate numbers will be reduced on Santa Rosa Island under the new management plan. The geographic distributions of deer and elk on the island are largely unknown by the National Park Service, and it is unknown how ungulate populations will respond to the reduction in numbers. Therefore, an index of shrub and tree community use will be developed for Santa Rosa Island by scoring each transect for signs of deer, elk and livestock.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- McEachern, Kathryn
- Date of Issue
- 2000
- Publisher
- USGS
- Units
- CHIS , HIST
- Keywords
- California, California Islands, Coomunity, ehistory, Endemic Plants, History, Monitoring, National Park, Protocol, shrub, Trees