Investigating Three Decades of Vegetation Change in a Mojave Desert Mountain Range
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UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones 5-1-2012 Investigating three decades of vegetation change in a Mojave Desert mountain range Chris Lee Roberts University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Desert Ecology Commons, Environmental Monitoring Commons, Plant Sciences Commons, and the Systems Biology Commons Repository Citation Roberts, Chris Lee, "Investigating three decades of vegetation change in a Mojave Desert mountain range" (2012). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 1615. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/4332596 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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INVESTIGATING THREE DECADES OF VEGETATION CHANGE IN A MOJAVE DESERT MOUNTAIN RANGE BY Chris Lee Roberts Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Eastern New Mexico University 2003 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science in Environmental Science Department of Environmental Studies School of Environmental and Public Affairs Greenspun College of Urban Affairs The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2012 ABSTRACT Investigating Three Decades of Vegetation Change in a Mojave Desert Mountain Range By Chris Roberts Dr. Scott Abella, Examination Committee Chair Assistant Research Professor University of Nevada, Las Vegas This project is a vegetation change study spanning 29 years in the Newberry Mountains of Southern Nevada. Long term monitoring data are crucial for understanding the effects of climate change on vegetation dynamics. Successful management intervention in vegetation change will require identification of early indicator plant species and their responses to climatic cues. This project is one of the oldest comparisons of resurveyed Mojave vegetation community plots with repeatable methodology and the longest survey interval reported for the southeastern Mojave Desert. 103 plots were relocated and resurveyed based on data methods in Jim Holland’s thesis titled “A Vegetative Analysis of the Newberry Mountains, Nevada.” We compared measures of species abundance and measures of community composition between the survey years of 1979 and 2008 and further investigated if changes were related to numerous environmental gradients present in the mountain range. Community composition, as measured by relative cover, was the only abundance measure found significantly different between survey years (A= -0.0031, p=0.04). Mountain soils derived from granitic residuum and colluvium showed significantly higher community composition change compared to the alluvial soil of bajadas. Certain plant species, such as Coleogyne iii ramosissima, associated with specific soils and higher elevations report significant decreases across multiple abundance measures. Other species such as Ferocactus cylindraceus were found to have increased significantly across abundance measures. We address inferred scenarios for changes to species across environmental gradients as well as the suitability of each species and various abundance measures as early indicators of vegetation community change. Overall we found negligible change for most plant species and vegetation communities as represented by multiple abundance measures between survey years. In addition, the analysis provided useful information on the natural history and current status of species within this unique mountain range. Future resurvey efforts with permanently established plots and shorter intervals have exciting potential for more predictive information relating to vegetation change. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................4 Introduction..............................................................................................................4 Regime Shift............................................................................................................4 Vegetation Change across Elevation Gradients.......................................................5 Vegetation Change at Ecotones...............................................................................8 Vegetation Change across Soils.............................................................................10 Historic Mojave Vegetation Change......................................................................12 Current Mojave Vegetation Change......................................................................16 Mojave Desert Climate Change.............................................................................19 Other Stochastic Vegetation Change.....................................................................21 CHAPTER 3 PROJECT PURPOSE AND SPECIFIC AIMS...........................................25 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.........................................................................28 CHAPTER 5 METHODS..................................................................................................30 Created Variables...................................................................................................32 Statistical Analysis.................................................................................................34 Non Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) ordination.....................................36 CHAPTER 7 RESULTS....................................................................................................38 Qualitative Description of Re-photography...........................................................38 Site Characteristics.................................................................................................42 Changes in Community Diversity..........................................................................43 Plot Occupancy by Density....................................................................................46 Plot Occupancy by Frequency...............................................................................49 Individual Species Changes across Plots...............................................................51 Individual Species Change within Plots................................................................57 Correlation Matrix Results.....................................................................................64 Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling..................................................................64 Multiple Response Permutation Procedure Results...............................................69 Computed Dissimilarity Measures.........................................................................70 Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression Results.......................................................83 CHAPTER 8 DISCUSSION.............................................................................................85 v Differences in Species Abundance........................................................................85 Differences in Community Composition...............................................................90 Study Context and Limitations..............................................................................92 Implications for Further Research.........................................................................94 APPENDICES...................................................................................................................96 Appendix 1 Comparison of Mean Density and Mean Relative Density...................................................................................................................97 Appendix 2 Comparison of Mean Frequency and Mean Relative Frequency by Species, 1979 and 2008..........................................................................................99 Appendix 3 Comparison of Mean Cover and Mean Relative Cover by Species, 1979 and 2008......................................................................................................101 Appendix 4 Correlation Matrix for Environmental Variables And Selected Species................................................................................................................ 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………....125 VITA................................................................................................................................132 vi LIST