Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report - USGS

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1 Introduction 1.1 Background Vegetation is a primary resource of natural areas, and description of vegetation composition, structure, and distribution is fundamental to effective land management. The term “vegetation” encompasses plants at multiple scales, from the most refined floristic levels (referred to as “plant communities” in this report) to the broadest physiognomic or life-form levels. This report describes the methods used and results obtained from a four-year project (2003-2007) to classify, describe, and develop a vegetation map database for Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO). The National Park Service’s (NPS) Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN), part of the service-wide Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program, organized and coordinated vegetation classification, description, and mapping at PEFO. For PEFO as well as its other 18 network parks, the SCPN needed baseline vegetation data upon which to develop and implement specific monitoring programs. Park managers needed baseline data and information on park resources for management purposes. In addition to the NPS, the project team included members from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC), Department of Geography at Kansas State University (KSU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and NatureServe. The USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program partially funded the project, and the project team used the Vegetation Mapping Program’s programmatic standards. 1.2 Scope and Products The scope of this project was Petrified Forest National Park and its environs, consisting of an approximately 1-km buffer around the 2003 park boundary. The total project area was 53,201 ha (131,463 ac); lands within the park boundary comprised 38,057 ha (94,042 ac) or 71.5% of the project area. A major goal of the project was to identify and classify plant communities at the park, based on field-collected vegetation data and, to a lesser extent, observations made during fieldwork conducted in association with photointerpretation. First, the project team identified and quantitatively described plant communities using the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) as a classification framework. The term “plant communities” refers to the finest floristic levels of the NVCS (associations and alliances) and to park specials (i.e. plant communities with insuffcient data to describe them as new alliances or associations) for some stands (table 1). Second, the team created a spatial database (the vegetation map database) documenting the park’s vegetation and land cover. The vegetation map database represents four map class schemas (table 1): 1. the “base” map class, the finest level of floristic detail that could be mapped 2. the “group” map class, a physiognomicfloristic view of the vegetation 3. the “management” map class, park-defined groupings of base map classes to represent a balance between required accuracy and maintaining map classes of management concern 4. the “macrogroup” map class, aggregation of group map classes to represent the next higher level of the NVCS hierarchy Finally, we assessed each map-class schema for accuracy. The base, group, and macrogroup map classes were not changed, but the management map classes were refined following a meeting with park resource staff. This report and its appendices document the methods, results, and findings for the PEFO vegetation characterization and mapping project. The project has 1
Vegetation Classification and Distribution Mapping Report: Petrified Forest National Park Table 1. Terminology used to describe vegetation and map classes at Petrified Forest National Park. Terminology Definition Derivation Plant communities Base map class Group map class Macrogroup map class Management map class Associations, alliances, and park specials Individual plant communities or groupings of plant communities Groupings of base map classes that reflect physiognomy and floristics Groupings of base map classes that reflect physiognomy and floristics Groupings of base map classes that reflect management interests Field relevés or observations Photointerpretation Based on ecological systems Aggregations of group map classes Park defined 2 also produced a number of interrelated products that are available on a DVD that accompanies the hard-copy report, or on the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program web site (http://biology.usgs. gov/npsveg/). A full listing of project deliverables, their availability, file name, and format appears in Appendix A. 1.3 The USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program The USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program is a cooperative project between the USGS and the NPS whose purpose is to classify, describe, and map vegetation in more than 270 national park units in the United States 1 . The USGS Center for Biological Informatics administers the program in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. Through implementation of the NPS Natural Resource Challenge (National Park Service 1999) significant funding became available for completing important natural resource baseline inventories in park units, including vegetation classification and mapping. This support made it possible for the NPS to move forward with dozens of new park unit vegetation classification and mapping projects. The Vegetation Mapping Program (VMP) supports consistent vegetation classification, mapping, and accuracy assessment protocols and standards across all park-mapping projects. The program has established guidance for all vegetation mapping projects in four documents: ● Standardized National Vegetation System (The Nature Conservancy and Environmental Systems Research Institute 1994a) ● Methodology for Assessing the Utility of Existing Data for Vegetation Mapping (The Nature Conservancy and Environmental Systems Research Institute 1996) ● Field Methods for Vegetation Mapping (The Nature Conservancy and Environmental Systems Research Institute 1994b) ● Accuracy Assessment Procedures (Environmental Systems Research Institute et al.1994) In addition, the program follows national standards for all park vegetation classification and mapping projects: ● Vegetation classification follows the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standards for vegetation classification and the National Vegetation 1 Language for the sections on the USGS-NPS Classification Standard (NVCS). Vegetation Mapping Program, National Vegetation ● Spatial data formatting follows the Classification Standard, and Federal Geographic Data Committee was modified from von Loh and others FGDC standards for spatial data (2006). transfer.
Page 1 and 2: National Park Service U.S. Departme
Page 3 and 4: Vegetation Classification and Distr
Page 5 and 6: The National Park Service, Natural
Page 10 and 11: Acronyms and Abbreviations AA ac AP
Page 12 and 13: Executive Summary The classificatio
Page 14: Acknowledgments Behind the authors
Page 31 and 32: Axis 3 Axis 2 Vegetation Classifica
Page 35 and 36: 20 Table 5. continued Plant communi
Page 55 and 56: 40 Table 13. Base map class summary
Page 61 and 62: 46 Table 16. Summary statistics for
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Vegetation Classification and Distr
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56 Table 22. Summary statistics for
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Literature Cited ties: Terrestrial
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B2 Appendix B Plant Community 2003
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B4 Appendix B .continued Plant Comm
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Appendix C: Global and local plant
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Appendix C: Global and Local Plant
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Appendix D Plant species list The s
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D3 Appendix D continued Scientific
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Appendix E Plant community and map
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Appendix E: Plant community and map
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Appendix F Plant community and map
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F3 Appendix F continued Plant commu
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Appendix F continued Plant communit
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G4 B1 Cottonwood / Rubber Rabbitbru
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G6 B3 Blue Sage Dwarf-Shrubland Fig
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G8 B5 Copperweed - Alkali Sacaton S
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G10 B7 Drummond Goldenweed - Gallet
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G12 B9 Greasewood / New Mexico Salt
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G14 B11 Iodine Bush Shrubland Figur
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G16 B13 Sandsage Colorado Plateau S
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G18 B15 Tamarisk Shrubland Figure.G
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G20 B17 Winter-fat / Blue Grama Dwa
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G22 B19 Alkali Sacaton - Blue Grama
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G24 B21 Blue Grama Herbaceous Veget
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G26 B23 Galleta - Alkali Sacaton He
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G28 B25 New Mexico Saltbush / Alkal
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G30 B27 Russian Thistle Sand Dune V
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G32 B29 Arizona Siltbush Sparse Veg
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G34 B31 Slender Buckwheat Sparse Ve
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G36 B33 Airstrip Figure.G65..Photos
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G38 B35 Barren Wash Figure.G68..Gro
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G40 B37 Park Sites Figure.G71..Phot
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G42 B39 Residences Figure.G73..Phot
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G44 B41 Run-off Control Feature Fig
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G46 B43 Stock Ponds Figure.G77..Pho
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G48 B45 Vegetated Wash Complex Figu
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Appendix H: Accuracy Assessment Dat
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Table H-4. Contingency table: Manag
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The Department of the Interior prot
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Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report - USGS

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