A comparison of methods to assess long-term changes in Sonoran Desert vegetation |
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| Authors: | S.M. Munson R.H. Webb J.A. Hubbard |
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| Affiliation: | 1. U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Canyonlands Research Station, 2290 S. West Resource Blvd., Moab, UT 84532, USA;2. U.S. Geological Survey, 520 N Park Ave. Tucson, AZ 85719, USA;3. National Park Service, Sonoran Desert Network Inventory and Monitoring Program, 7660 E. Broadway Blvd, Suite 303 Tucson, AZ 85710, USA;1. U.S. Geological Survey, Baltimore, MD, USA;2. U.S. Geological Survey, Albuquerque, NM, USA;3. U.S. Geological Survey, Albuquerque, NM, USA;4. Geosyntec Consultants, Knoxville, TN, USA;5. University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA;1. Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, 345 Clifton Ct, Cincinnati, OH, 45220, USA;2. U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Box 25046, MS 980, Denver, CO, 80225, USA;3. Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, 18 Shideler Hall 250 S. Patterson Ave, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA;4. Section of Invertebrate Zoology, Gothenburg Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 7283, SE-402 35, Gothenburg, Sweden;5. Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 463, SE-405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden;6. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlá?ská 2, CZ-611 37, Brno, Czech Republic;1. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA;2. Conservation Management Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA;3. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Williamstown, WV 26187, USA;4. U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA |
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| Abstract: | Knowledge about the condition of vegetation cover and composition is critical for assessing the structure and function of ecosystems. To effectively quantify the impacts of a rapidly changing environment, methods to track long-term trends of vegetation must be precise, repeatable, and time- and cost-efficient. Measuring vegetation cover and composition in arid and semiarid regions is especially challenging because vegetation is typically sparse, discontinuous, and individual plants are widely spaced. To meet the goal of long-term vegetation monitoring in the Sonoran Desert and other arid and semiarid regions, we determined how estimates of plant species, total vegetation, and soil cover obtained using a widely-implemented monitoring protocol compared to a more time- and resource-intensive plant census. We also assessed how well this protocol tracked changes in cover through 82 years compared to the plant census. Results from the monitoring protocol were comparable to those from the plant census, despite low and variable plant species cover. Importantly, this monitoring protocol could be used as a rapid, “off-the shelf” tool for assessing land degradation (or desertification) in arid and semiarid ecosystems. |
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