Classification of City of Rocks National Reserve vegetation data to support the vegetation mapping program
Aho K and Forman AD. 2010. Classification of City of Rocks National Reserve vegetation data to support the vegetation mapping program. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/UCBN/NRTR—2010/313. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Vegetation data collected to support the Upper Columbia Basin Network (UCBN) Vegetation Mapping Program at the City of Rocks National Reserve (CIRO) consisted of 190 plots and 312 plant species. The authors examined seven vegetation classification methods. In general, methods which created spherical clusters (i.e. average linkage, flexible β = -0.25, complete linkage, and PAM, Ward) were favored by the authors. This was true for both the geometric evaluators, which are predisposed to favoring spherical clusters, and non-geometric evaluators (i.e. the indicator species analysis methods) which are not predisposed to favor a particular type of cluster geometry. It appears that a spherical cluster interpretation of the CIRO data (as opposed to a linear cluster interpretation) is the most valid. The vegetation classes resulting from both the 15 cluster and 37 cluster classifications were compared to the hierarchical framework of vegetation classification described within the National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS; FGDC 2008) and to vegetation types currently described and archived in the National Vegetation Classification (NVC; NatureServe 2010) database. Vegetation classes resulting from the 37 cluster classification were more readily interpreted within the NVCS framework than classes resulting from the 15 cluster classification. Twenty-five of the thirty-seven plant communities resulting from this classification were represented in the NVC at the time the class list was compiled (NatureServe 2010). Eleven classes were not listed in the NVC at the Association level, but were described within the range of variation of an appropriate NVC Alliance. Several of the Associations which had not been described below the Alliance level by the NVC were recognized at other park units within the Upper Columbia Basin Network.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Aho, Ken; Forman, Amy
- Date of Issue
- 2010-04
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CIRO , NRSS , UCBN
- Keywords
- Distribution (Biodiversity), Inventory, national vegetation classification standard (NVCS), Plants, Presence (Biodiversity), Taxa List Only, Vegetation Classification, Vegetation Inventory, Vegetation Mapping, vegetation plot data