Classes and Plant Assoc
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Program Center Denali National Park and Preserve Landcover Mapping Project Volume 2: Landcover Classes and Plant Associations Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/DENA/NRTR—2001/002 ON THE COVER View of cloud shrouded peak in Denali National Park and Preserve. Photo by EarthSat Corp. and AK Natural Heritage Program. Denali National Park and Preserve Landcover Mapping Project Volume 2: Landcover Classes and Plant Associations Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/DENA/NRTR—2001/002 Keith Boggs Ann Garibaldi Alaska Natural Heritage Program, Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska Anchorage, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 Jennifer L. Stevens Todd Helt Earth Satellite Corporation, 6011 Executive Blvd, Suite 400, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Jess Grunblatt National Park Service- Alaska Support Office, 2525 Gambell St, Anchorage, AK 99503. March 2001 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Natural Resource Program Center Fort Collins, Colorado The Natural Resource Publication series addresses natural resource topics that are of interest and applicability to a broad readership in the National Park Service and to others in the management of natural resources, including the scientific community, the public, and the NPS conservation and environmental constituencies. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed to ensure that the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and is designed and published in a professional manner. The Natural Resources Technical Reports series is used to disseminate the peer-reviewed results of scientific studies in the physical, biological, and social sciences for both the advancement of science and the achievement of the National Park Service’s mission. The reports provide contributors with a forum for displaying comprehensive data that are often deleted from journals because of page limitations. Current examples of such reports include the results of research that addresses natural resource management issues; natural resource inventory and monitoring activities; resource assessment reports; scientific literature reviews; and peer reviewed proceedings of technical workshops, conferences, or symposia. Views, statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations and data in this report are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect views and policies of the U.S. Department of the Interior, NPS. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the National Park Service. Printed copies of reports in these series may be produced in a limited quantity and they are only available as long as the supply lasts. This report is also available from the Natural Resource Program Center website (http://www.nature.nps.gov/publications/NRPM) on the internet, or by sending a request to the address on the back cover. Please cite this publication as: Boggs, K., A. Garibaldi, J. L. Stevens, J. Grunblatt, and T. Helt. 2001. Denali National Park and Preserve landcover mapping project Volume2: Landcover classes and plant associations. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/DENA/NRTR—2001/002. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. NPS D-388, March 2001 AUTHORS Keith Boggs is a vegetation ecologist at the Alaska Natural Heritage Program, Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska Anchorage, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501. Ann Garibaldi worked as a vegetation ecologist from 1994 to 2000 with the Alaska Natural Heritage Program, Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska Anchorage, 707 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501. Jennifer Stevens is an imagery/geospatial analyst at Earth Satellite Corporation, 6011 Executive Blvd, Suite 400, Rockville, Maryland 20852-3801. Jess Grunblatt is the Land Cover coordinator at the National Park Service-Alaska Support Office, 2525 Gambell St, Anchorage, AK. Todd Helt worked as an imagery/geospatial analyst from 1996 to 2000 at Earth Satellite Corporation, 6011 Executive Blvd, Suite 400, Rockville, Maryland 20852-3801. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank and acknowledge the National Park Service-Alaska Support Office for financial support of this project, and Denali staff for logistic support for data collection in Denali National Park and Preserve. We also thank Rob Lipkin (Alaska Natural Heritage Program) for help identifying plant species, Susan Klein (Alaska Natural Heritage Program) for reviewing the document, and Wanda Seamster (Environment and Natural Resources Institute) for producing several of the graphics. A special thanks goes to Denny Grossman and Anthony Curtis (The Nature Conservancy) for their advice and support in pursuing this project. Sara Wesser (National Park Service), George Dickison (National Park Service), Beth Koltun (National Park Service) and Jim Drake (The Nature Conservancy) all gave valuable advice in the initial stages of the project. ABSTRACT Boggs, K., A. Garibaldi, J. L. Stevens, J. Grunblatt, and T. Helt. 2001. Denali National Park and Preserve landcover mapping project Volume2: Landcover classes and plant associations. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/DENA/NRTR—2001/002. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. As part of the Inventory and Monitoring Program of the National Park Service in Alaska, the Alaska Support Office of NPS in collaboration with the Alaska Natural Heritage Program and Earth Satellite Corporation, conducted a landcover mapping project for Denali National Park and Preserve. This document provides the following information: climate and ecoregions, literature review, methods, landcover classes and plant associations. The landcover map was developed at intermediate scales (1:63,360 - 1:100,000) using Spot and Landsat Thematic Mapper multi-spectral imagery. A separate document (Stevens et al. 2001) details the production of the map. The landcover classification system used for mapping is based primarily on vegetation structure (plant height) and form (tree, shrub or herbaceous), and to a lesser extent genera (Picea) and species (Picea mariana) information. The classification, with modifications, follows The Alaska Vegetation Classification (Viereck et al. 1992) system at levels III and IV. Development of the classification was based on a pre-fieldwork list of classes using local knowledge and a literature/data review. The classification system was field checked during July 1999 using a helicopter to reach sampling polygons. A stratified random approach—based on ecoregions, aspect, slope and unsupervised satellite imagery— was used to select polygons for field sampling both fly-over and ground data polygons. Fly-over polygons were used primarily for training the satellite imagery and describing landcover classes (life form and structure), whereas ground data was used for finer scale descriptions (species, structure and soils) of the landcover classes. Data collected for fly-over and ground data included vegetation structure, plant species, percent cover, elevation, as well as other site information. The final map classes were based on numerous iterations using the field data and image processing results. A total of 25 landcover classes were described for Denali. The distribution of landcover types in the Denali project area is as follows: 0.8 % area in Dense-Open Spruce Forest, 9.1% area in Open-Woodland Spruce Forest, 14.2% area in Open-Woodland Stunted Spruce, 1.6% area in Broadleaf Forest, 2.5% area in Mixed Spruce-Broadleaf Forest, 4.3% area in Alder Shrub, 1.6% area in Willow Shrub, 0.9% area in Closed Low Birch Shrub, 9.5% area in Low Shrub Birch-Ericaceous-Willow, 4.6% area in Low Shrub- Sedge, 0.04% area in Peatland, 1.1% area in Herbaceous/Shrub, 5.8% area in Dwarf Shrub, 1.2% area in Dwarf Shrub-Rock, 0.8% area in Dry-Mesic Herbaceous, 0.6% area in Wet Herbaceous, 0.01% area in Aquatic Herbaceous, 4.8% area in Sparse Vegetation, 9.8% area in Bare ground, 15.5% area in Snow/Ice, 6.9% area in Shadow, 0.5% area in Silty Water, 1.0% area in Clear Water, 2.9% area in Burn, and 0.01% area in Cloud. Plant associations were described using the ground data and a literature review. Plant associations provide a hierarchical link between the coarse scale landcover classes and finer scale species information. Plant association is the finest level of both the Viereck et al. (1992) and National Vegetation Classification System (Grossman et al. 1998) classifications. Plant associations previously described by Heebner (1982) were copied and placed under the landcover class they occur in. Plant associations not defined by Heebner (1982) but sampled during the 1999 field season were also described and placed under the proper landcover class. A total of 97 plant associations were described; 56 were based on Heebner (1982) and 41 on the 1999 field data. Keywords: Alaska, Denali National Park and Preserve, classification, landcover class, plant association TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..................................................................................................................................................1 Literature Review.........................................................................................................................................1 Description of Project Area and Environment.............................................................................................4 Ecoregions .....................................................................................................................................4