Overview
Generating over 99.9% of the Earth's biomass, plants are the primary producers of life on our planet. Vegetation is the biological foundation of terrestrial ecosystems and is highly influenced by environmental factors, such as soil texture, depth, and landform type. Especially as they relate to water, these influences are magnified at local scales in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and Apache Highlands ecoregions.
Vegetation manipulation is a primary component of most biological resource management. Knowing about the status and trends of vegetation and soils can help park managers to modify vegetation to achieve goals related to wildlife management (via habitat manipulation), fire management (via fuels modification) and plant ecology (via direct or indirect changes to plant interactions). Accounting for soil dynamics provides information on management issues and stressors that may have long-term consequences for terrestrial ecosystem structure and function.
Measurements and Objectives
Monitored measures include:
- Foliar cover of perennial plant species and lifeforms
- Soil cover by substrate type
- Biological soil crust cover
- Average soil aggregate stability
- Bulk density of soils
The objectives of this monitoring are to determine the status and long-term trends in:
- Vegetative cover of common native and non-native perennial, and non-native annual plant species
- Frequency of uncommon native perennials (<10% cover), all annual lifeforms, and all non-native species
- Density of columnar cacti and ocotillo
- Soil cover type
- Cover and frequency of biological soil crusts
- Surface soil aggregate stability
- Soil bulk density
For more information, contact Andy Hubbard, Sarah Studd, or Cheryl McIntyre.
Quick Reads
Showing results 1-7 of 7
- Locations: Saguaro National Park
- Offices: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Sonoran Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network
Vegetation maps tell park managers what’s growing where, and what kinds of habitat occur in a park. At Saguaro National Park, the Sonoran Desert Network mapped and classified 97 different vegetation associations from 2010 to 2018. Communities ranged from low-elevation creosote shrublands to mountaintop Douglas fir forests on the slopes of Rincon Peak.
- Locations: Coronado National Memorial
- Offices: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Sonoran Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network
Vegetation maps tell park managers what’s growing where, and what kinds of habitat occur in a park. This helps them with many planning, resource, and interpretive activities. At Coronado National Memorial, the Sonoran Desert Network mapped 25 different vegetation associations, ranging from dense, non-native grasslands dominated by exotic Lehmann lovegrass to steep expanses of exposed bedrock dominated by mountain mahogany and evergreen sumac.
- Locations: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
- Offices: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Sonoran Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network
Vegetation maps tell park managers what’s growing where, and what kinds of habitat occur in a park. At Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, the Sonoran Desert Network mapped and classified 16 different vegetation associations from 2012 to 2015. Pinyon-juniper woodlands and ponderosa pine forests cover the greatest area in this park, which was strongly impacted by the 2011 Miller Fire. A total of 349 different plant species were recorded during the project.
- Locations: Montezuma Castle National Monument
- Offices: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Sonoran Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network
Vegetation maps tell park managers what’s growing where, and what kinds of habitat occur in a park. This helps them with many planning, resource, and interpretive activities. At the two units of Montezuma Castle National Monument, the Sonoran Desert Network mapped 12 different vegetation associations. The park’s vegetation can be classified into two broad types: riparian woodlands and gallery forests, and thornscrub communities in rocky uplands.
- Locations: Capitol Reef National Park, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Long-term environmental monitoring usually requires complex sampling designs. By necessity, these designs sample a limited set of conditions on just a fraction of the landscape, which results in missing data. This article summarizes recent research that applies Bayesian modeling to three case studies in national parks. This approach allows park ecologists and analysts to move beyond missing data to support data-driven management and monitoring of natural resources.
- Locations: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Saguaro National Park
Under the effects of climate change, the Sonoran Desert is expected to become hotter and drier. These changes are likely to have strong impacts on the abundance and distribution of the region's plant species. A recent study used long-term vegetation monitoring results across two national parks and two research sites to determine how Sonoran Desert plant species have responded to past climate variability.
- Locations: Big Bend National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Chiricahua National Monument, Coronado National Memorial, more »
It might come as a surprise to learn that in the sublime expanses of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, some of the most interesting life around can be found in the dirt right in front of your feet! Biological soil crusts form a living groundcover that is the foundation of desert plant life.
Source: Data Store Saved Search 2571 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.
Source: Data Store Saved Search 2580. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.
Last updated: May 9, 2022