Original Scope of Work - Classification of vegetation provides an inventory to assess change, a common language to compare communities with other LTERs, and a baseline for land stewardship decisions. Several initial efforts toward mapping and vegetation data collection have already been started, but not a structured community analysis and subsequent mapping. The initial phase of this project would use the thousands of previously collected plot data to develop a vegetation classification. Data will be analyzed using a variety of classification and ordination techniques to determine the most parsimonious classification system and subsequently compared to the National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS) at both the Alliance and Association levels. Any new Alliances or Associations will be proposed for modification of the NVCS. All plot data will be input into VEGBANK for anyone to use. The classification will be related to environmental factors on the landscape and mapped in GIS. We expect a gradient-driven distribution of vegetation that is related to a complex of environmental factors, including soil characteristics and topographic characteristics. Environmental data (soil type, aspect, slope position, disturbance history) will be related to vegetation classification groups.
Several questions linger in regard to transferring the NVCS to mapping units, including appropriate scale that often depends on the research or management question. We will map the vegetation at the Alliance, Association and Group levels to determine which is most appropriate and for what questions. Despite previous efforts, parts of the area may have been missed by previous sampling, so mapping of plots will be used to determine further sampling efforts to fill in gaps. Subsequent sampling of additional plots will be the second phase of this study, and these plots will be used to examine the efficacy of the classified Associations and Alliances and their mapped units, thus validating the classification.
Progress on Scope of Work – We have compiled various abiotic GIS data sets (see maps below) and a land-type classification. We used this classification to develop a stratified sampling of areas, based on an east-west gradient in elevation and precipitation, parent geology, and soils. Within each land type, plots are being sampled along the range of topographic position and aspects. A total of 70 plots locations have been found and data from 17 plots has been collected using the Carolina Vegetation Sampling protocol. It is obvious that we will need another summer to complete data collection.
