Integrated Upland Vegetation and Soils Monitoring for Petroglyph National Monument: 2008 Summary Report
DeCoster JK and Swan MC. 2009. Integrated Upland Vegetation and Soils Monitoring for Petroglyph National Monument: 2008 Summary Report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/SCPN/NRDS—2009/021. National Park Service Natural Resource Program Center. Fort Collins, Colorado
The Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) is monitoring vegetation and soils as overall indicators of upland ecosystem integrity. The SCPN Upland Monitoring crew began monitoring at Petroglyph National Monument (PETR) in 2008 with the establishment of six plots in the Malpais ecological site. Field methodology is provided in detail in the SCPN Integrated Upland Protocol (DeCoster et al., in review). These data represent the first year baseline of sampling for the Malpais ecological site at PETR. The data indicate that the vegetation consisted of a mixture of grasses, shrubs, and forbs. The complete absence of biological soil crusts and the low soil aggregate stability indicate that there is a relatively high potential for soil erosion. However, the erosion potential is somewhat moderated by the cover of plant bases and duff and litter, and the abundance of relatively small basal gaps. The SCPN Upland Monitoring crew will revisit these six plots at a regular interval (e.g. every 5-6 years). Each visit’s data will be compared to the previously collected data to assess changes through time in vegetation composition and structure and in soil stability and hydrologic function.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- DeCoster, James; Swan, Megan
- Date of Issue
- 2009-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service Natural Resource Program Center
- Units
- NRSS , PETR , SCPN
- Keywords
- Abundance (Biodiversity), Malpais ecological site, Monitoring, Observations, Presence (Biodiversity), Soils, Taxa Links To Datasets, upland ecosystems, Vegetation, Vouchers