Forest Plan Assessment 2 Assessing Ecological Sustainability and Diversity of Plant and Animal Communities 2.1 Assessing Terrestrial Ecosystems, Aquatic Ecosystems, and Watersheds 2.1.1 Terrestrial Ecosystems, Aquatic Ecosystems and Watersheds Overview 2.1.1.1 Existing Information References 1. Harris, N .L.; L ugo, A.E.; B rown, S .; Heartsill-Scalley, T.; e ditors. 201 2. Luquillo Experimental Forest: Research history and opportunities. USDA Forest Service, EFR-1, May. 2. Pike, A.S.; Scatena, F.N. 2009. Riparian indicators of flow frequency in a tropical montane stream n etwork. University of P ennsylvania, D epartment o f E arth a nd E nvironmental Science, 240 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. 3. Lichvar, R.W. 2012. Puerto Rico 2012 final regional wetland plant list. The national wetland plant list, ERDC/CRREL TR-12-11, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Cold Regions Research and E ngineering Laboratory, H anover, N H. [http://acwc.sdp.sirsi.net/client/search/asset:asset?t:ac=$N/1012381] 4. Natural R esources C onservation S ervice (NRCS). 2012. S oil survey of the C aribbean National Forest. 5. Panagopoulos, N . 1999. A g uide t o C aribbean vegetation t ypes: Preliminary classification system and descriptions. 6. Ewel, J.J.; Whitmore, J.L. 1973. The ecological life zones of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 7. Weaver, P.L. 201 2. The L uquillo Mountains: F orest r esources and their h istory. G eneral Technical Report IITF-44, USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 8. Miller, G.L.; Lugo, A.E. 2009. Guide to the ecological systems of Puerto Rico. 9. Weaver, P.L. 1994. Baño de Oro Natural Area, Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico. 10. Hamilton, L .S.; Juvik, J .O.; S catena, F.N.; editors. 1 994. Tropical montane c loud f orests. Ecological Studies 110. 11. Brokaw, N.; [and others]; editors. 2012. A Caribbean forest tapestry: The multidimensional nature of disturbance and response. 12. Harris, N .L.; L ugo, A.E.; B rown, S .; Heartsill-Scalley, T.; e ditors. 201 2. Luquillo Experimental Forest: Research history and opportunities. USDA Forest Service, EFR-1. 13. Krupnick, G.A.; Miller, J.S.; Porter-Morgan, H.A. 2012. Addressing target two of the global strategy f or pl ant c onservation by r apidly i dentifying Puerto R ican plants at r isk. Pedro 13 El Yunque National Forest Acevedo-Rodriguez N ational Museum of N atural H istory, S mithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx NY. 14. The New York Botanical Garden. 2011. Puerto Rico Endangered Plants Initiative (PREPI), PREPI_SpecimenData.accdb. 15. Axelrod, F.S. 2011.A systematic vademecum to the vascular plants of Puerto Rico. 16. Departamento d e R ecursos N aturales, E stado L ibre Asociado d e P uerto Rico. 2 007. Elementos criticos de la Division de Patrimonio Natural-Plantas. Revised. 17. USDA Forest Service. 2012. Ecological sustainability e valuation (ESE) tool; planning area element priority report. Planning area: El Yunque National Forest. 18. Little, E.L.; Woodbury, R.O. 1976. Trees of the C aribbean National Forest, Puerto Rico. Research Paper ITF-20, USDA Forest Service Institute of Tropical Forestry. 27 p. 19. Little, E .L., Woodbury, R .O. 1980. Rare a nd e ndemic t rees of P uerto R ico a nd t he Virgin Islands. USDA Conservation Research Report 27. 26 p. 20. Fiqueroa Colon, J .C.; Woodbury, R .O. 1996. R are a nd endangered p lant sp ecies of P uerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: An annotated checklist. 21. Lugo, A .E. 2009. The emerging era of novel tropical forests. International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service, 1201 Ceiba St. Jardın Botanico Sur, Rıo Piedras, Puerto Rico. Biotropica 41(5): 589–591. 22. Marrero, J. 1947. A survey of the forest plantations in the Caribbean National Forest. Master thesis. Tropical Forest Experiment Station. 23. Evans, J .; Turnbull, J . 2 004. P lantation forestry i n t he t ropics. T hird edition, O xford University Press. 24. US DA Forest Service. 1997. Revised land an d resource m anagement p lan, C aribbean National Forest/Luquillo Experimental Forest. Southern Region, Puerto Rico. 25. Brokaw, N.; [and others]; editors. 2012. A Caribbean forest tapestry. Oxford Press. Map Formulation and Delineation Meta Data and References This v egetation c lassification w as d eveloped f or the r evision o f E l Yunque National F orest (EYNF) Management P lan i n 2 013. The g eospatial d ataset w as cr eated and modified at t he International Institute of Tropical (IITF) Forestry G IS a nd Remote Sensing Lab with e xpertise from sci entists an d f oresters f rom t he I ITF an d E YNF. The g eospatial data w as b ased o n t he PRGAP 2000 l andcover map ( Gould e t a l. 2007). The or iginal d ata was modified t o b etter fit forest management needs. We modified the PRGAP land cover by incorporating information from the Holdridge ecological lifezones (Ewel and Whitmore 1973), 600 meter elevation line (USGS), and 33 00 m illimeter precipitation lin e ( Daly et a l. 2 003) to create the n ew vegetation classification. We a lso c reated a 100 -foot buf fer a round t he r ivers ( National H ydrography Dataset) inside the Forest to identify riparian forest. The river buffer zones were separated into submontane moist, montane wet and rain, and montane cloud wet and rain riparian forests using a combination of ecological life zones data and the 600 meter elevation line. 14 Forest Plan Assessment 2.1.2 Identifying the Ecosystems to be Addressed in the Assessment and Current Condition Three types of nomenclature are commonly used to refer to the forests of the EYNF, each serving a particular audience. Local names in Puerto Rico are from Wadsworth (1951); Beard’s (1944, 1949) terminology is from the Caribbean, particularly the Lesser Antilles; and Holdridge’s (1967) life zone sy stem is commonly us ed in C entral a nd S outh America an d t he G reater Antilles (Weaver 1994) For t he 1 997 land a nd resource m anagement pl an the F orest u sed t he “local n ames i n P uerto Rico” t o ad dress t he F orest eco systems. This n omenclature h as n ot b een consistently u sed t o describe the forest ecosystems by academia, researchers, and land managers. Vegetation c lassification pr ovides a common language for t he ef fective m anagement an d conservation at all scales. The vegetation can be described by i ts repeating patterns i n species composition a nd/or g rowth f orms a nd s tructure and r elationships to t he e nvironment i n w hich found. As with any taxonomy, we use vegetation classification to simplify the patterns in order to communicate and share information. We initiated our mapping efforts using IITF (Bill Gourd) Land Cover 2000–National Vegetation Classification (NVC) map (for more detail see Appendix A). This map follows a hierarchy of NVC dow n t o “ groups.” The hierarchy of t he N VC c ontinues d own w ith “associations” an d “alliances,” which f ocus and r efines m ore o n t he eco systems v egetation o r en vironmental conditions at the scale needed to assess timber stands. Map 2-1 shows the result of our assessment of the ecosystems present at EYNF. 15 El Yunque National Forest Map 2-1. El Yunque National Forest vegetation Source: Quiñones, M.; Rivera, L.A.; Gould, W.A. 2013. El Yunque National Forest vegetation map. Terrestrial Ecosystem Assessment chapter of the land and resources management plan revision for El Yunque National Forest. Vector data. USDA Forest Service, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Forest Type Description M279 Caribbean Montane Humid Forest Montane Forest is the zone in mountainous regions where the influence of altitude (vertical relief) results in local climatic regimes that are sufficiently different from those in the adjacent lowlands as to cause a complex vertical climate-vegetation-soil zonation. This includes vegetation at the base of a mountain when it is di fferent f rom l owland vegetation ( Panagopoulos 1999). Humid forest i s t he vegetation i n frost-free areas d ominated by trees that ar e always wet from rain (Panagopoulos 1999). G448 Caribbean Wet Montane Forest Group Wet Montane Forest encompasses areas with mean annual precipitation within the approximate range of 2000 to 4000 millimeters (78 to 156 inches) per year (Ewel and Whitmore 1973) and (Miller and Lugo 2009). 16 Forest Plan Assessment Mature Tabonuco Montane Wet Forest Mature Tabonuco Montane Rain Forest Mature Sierra Palm Montane Wet Forest Planted/Secondary Montane Wet Forest Mature Tabonuco Montane Wet Forest. At EYNF this forest lies between 150 and 600 meters of altitude (Weaver 2012). This forest contains epiphytic ferns, bromeliads, orchids, and lianas; and also contains more than 150 species of trees forming a complete canopy at about 20 meters (66 feet) (Miller and Lugo 2009). Mature Tabonuco Montane Rain Forest. In Puerto Rico, this forest is confined to the EYNF. It is l ocated a t i ntermediate elevations to t he w indward w here i t o ccupies 1 ,420 h ectares, or 13 percent of the EYNF (Weaver 1994). I t occupies the wettest zone with a lower rainfall limit of about 4,000 m illimeters (150 i nches).