(200) B565i no. 2001 -1 mt of the Interior al Survey c.1 Coefficients of Conservatism for the Vascular Flora of the Dakotas and Adjacent Grasslands Information and Technology Report USGS/BRD/ITR- 2001 -0001 ~USGS science for a changing world Cover art: Penstemon nitidus courtesy of Dorothy E. Mushet. U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Coefficients of Conservatism for the Vascular Flora of the Dakotas and Adjacent Grasslands By The Northern Great Plains Floristic Quality Assessment Panel Information and Technology Report USGS/BRD/ITR- 2001 -0001 OCT 1 G 2.001 U.S. Department of the Interior Gale A. Norton, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Charles G. Groat, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2001 Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Cop ies of th is publication are available from the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Spring­ field, Virginia 22161 (1 -800-553-6847 or 703-487 -4650). Copies also are available to registered users from the Defense Technical Information Center, Attn .: Help Desk, 8725 Kingman Road, Suite 0944, Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060-6218 (1 -800 -225-3842 or 703 -767 - 9050). Suggested citation: The orthem Great Plain Floristic Quality Assessment Panel, 200 I, Coefficient of conservatism for the vascular flora of the Dakotas and adjacent grasslands: U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Divi ion, Lnformation and Technology Report USGS/ BRD/lTR- 200 1-0001, 32 p. Contents Page Ab tract ............ ..... .. ..... .......... ......... ......... ... .. ... .. .......... ............. ....... ............... ... ... .. ... .. I Introducti on .. .... .. .. .. .. .... .. ...................... .. ... .. .. ................ ..... ..... ....... ... .......... ................ 2 Methods ... ...... ... .... ... .. .......... ........... ... ....... .. ..... ... .. .. .......... ..... ..... ... .... ...................... .. .. 2 Assignment of coeffici ent ...... ... .. .. ....... .. .................... ... .. ... ..... ..... ................ ........ 2 Mean C va lues .. .............................. .... ... .. .. ......................... ..... .... ...... ..... ..... ....... ... 3 Fl ori sti c quali ty index .... .. .... ... .. .. ..... .. ... .... ....... ............... .......... ........... .. .. ......... ... 4 Applicati on .... ..... ........................ .. .. ................ ..... ..... .. ........... ..... ... .............. .......... ...... 4 Res ult and di cus ion .......... .... .. ..... .. .... .. ... ... .... ..... ..... ................................................ 6 Ackn owledgments .................. ... .... ........... .. ..... .. ... ..... ..... ..... ... ... ....... ..... ....... ... ... .. .. ..... 7 References cited ........................... ......... .... ..... ....... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ............... ..... .... .... Vegetation checklist for orth and South Dakota ( xcluding the Bl ack Hill ) ........... 9 Figures Di stribution of the I 309 nati e plant taxa occurri ng in 01th and outh Dakota (excluding the Black Hill s) by coefficient of con ervatism de ignat ion .... .... .. ... 5 2 Di tribut ion of nat i e and nonnative plant taxa occurring in orth and outh Dakota (excluding the Black Hi ll ) by physiognomic clas ........ .. .......... .. ......... 5 Table Plant pccie characteri tic of co fficient of con ervati m ( va lue ) ranging from 0 to I 0 .............................. .. .......................... .... ........... .... ........ .... .... 3 Il l Coefficients of Conservatism for the Vascular Flora of the Dakotas and Adjacent Grasslands By Th e Northern Great Plains Floristic Qu ality Assessment Panel Coordinator: Dav id M. Mu het .S. Geological Survey orthern Prairie Wildlife Re earch enter Jame town, D 5840 I Panel Members: William T. Barker Darl a M. Lenz Nort h Dakota State Uni versity North Dakota Parks and Recrea ti on Department Depa rtm ent of Animal and Range Science 1835 Bi marck Ex pre way Fa rgo, D 5 I 05 Bi marck, D 58504 Edwa rd . Dekey er Judith A. Maxwell No rth Dakota tate ni ver ity U . Departm nt of Agri culture Department of Animal and Range Science Fore t Ser ice Fa rgo, D 58 105 Dakota Pra iri e Gra slands Bi marck, D 5 50 I Harold A. Kantrud U . Geologica l Sur ey (Retired) onnan . Melvin Ill orthern Prai rie Wildli fe Re earch en ter . Department of Agri culture Jam tO\ n, D 5 40 1 atural Resource Con erva ti on Service Wetl and cience In titute Donald R. Kirby Laurel, MD 20708 orth Dakota ta te ni ver ity Department of Animal and Range cience Dav id J. Ode Fargo, D 58 105 South Dakota Departm nt of Ga me, Fi h, and Park 523 Ea t apitol A enue Gary •. Lars n Pierre, D 57 50 I out h Dakota tate niver it y Department of Biology and Mi crobiology Chari s . Peli zza Brookings, D 57007 U . Fi h and Wildlife Service RR # 1, Box 77 La ke nde , D 57356 Abstract con erva ti m ( va lu e ; range = 0 to I 0) to each pl ant specie in the region's fl ora. Th e va lue we a igned Flori ti c qu ality a e ment can be used to identify repre ented our coli cti ve kn owl edge of th e part rn of natural areas, to fac ilitate compari ons amon g different oc urrence of each pl ant pecie in th e Dakota and our site , to prov ide long- term monitoring of natural area confidence that a particular taxon i natural-area qualit y, and to evaluate habitat managem nt and dependent. Because tate boundari e u uall y do not re torati on efforts. To fac ilitate th u of fl oristi foll ow ecological boundari es, the va lu e we assigned qua lity asse sment in orth Dakota, South Dakota should be equally valid in nea rby area with th e ame (excluding th e Bl ack Hill ·), and adj acent gra lands, we vegetati on ty pe . Of the I ,5 4 taxa we recogn ized in developed a specie I i t and a igned coeffi cient of thi effort, 275 ( 17%) were determined to be no nn ative to the region. We a signed C value of 4 or hi gher to (Wilhelm and Ladd, 19 ), the a signed coeffi cient of 77% of our nati ve taxa, and the entire nati ve fl ora had a con ervati sm ( alue ), together with a li st o f native mean C value (C) o f 6. 1. A tlori ti c quality index ( FQI ) plant pecie pre ent in an area, can be u eel to index can be calcul ated to rank ites in order of their flori ti c the fl ori ti c quality of th at area (Swink and Wilhe lm, quali ty. By applying the coeffi~ ien ts of con ervati sm 1994). Sub equently, flori sti c quality a · c sment ha upplied here and calculating and FQI , an efD ctl ve been expanded to include Michigan, Mis ouri, th e mean of evaluating the qua li ty of pl ant communitie remainder of lllinoi , and northern Ohio (Ladd, 1993; can be obtained. Additionall y, by repeating pl ant Andreas and Li chvar, 1995; Herman and others, 1997; survey and calculati on of C and FQI over time, Taft and other , 1997), and intere t to expand the e ffort temporal change in fl ori sti c quality can be identified. to other regions is growing. Here we provide values for plant pecie of orth Dakota and outh Dakota, Key Words: tlori ti c quality a se ment, nati ve excluding the Black Hill (hereafter referred to as the plant , natural area a e ment, natural area monitoring, Dakotas) to facilitate the u e of flori sti c quality a e - orth Dakota, pl ant community evaluation, re toration ment in thi region and adjacent gra lands. evalu ati on, pl ant pecies checklist, South Dakota. Methods Introduction The natural landscape o f 01th and South Dakota has Assignment of coefficients been modi ti ed ex t n ively since pre-European settl e­ At an initial meeting of scienti sts and land manager in ment. Large tracts of land have been tilled and put into ovember 1999, we determined that the development agri cultural production; wetlands have been drained, of a specie li st with standardi z d alue for the ti li ed, and farmed; rangeland have been grazed by Dakota ' fl ora would improv effort to a e the dome tic livestock at timing and intensiti es that do not quality of remnant natural areas and a id evaluati ons o f match those o f nati ve herbi vores; and natural fires have re torati on and management effort . The orthern been suppressed. Consequently, remaining natural area Great Pl ain Fl ori sti c Quality A essment Panel wa di pl ay vary ing degree of quality because of habitat fo rmed to develop thi che kli t by u ing the "Atl as of alterati on , and many o f the region's nati ve plant the F lora of the Great Plain " and the " Fl ora of the pecie have been reduced or eliminated from vast areas Great Pl ains" (G reat Pl ain Fl ora A sociation, 1977 where they fo rmerl y occurred. A habi tat have been 199 1) a primary reference ources. In January 2000 altered, pl ant pecie adapted to th ese habitat have th e panel met for a 3-day workshop at the orth Dakota been repl aced by oth er (often nonnati ve) pecies better tate Uni ver ity Herbarium, in Fargo, orth Dakota, uited to the new ecological conditions. A pressure to where we a signed a C va lue to each taxon on the develop remaining natural areas continue, o doe checkli t (see page 7). intere t in preserv in g, re loring, and managing them. We attempted to in clude a ll speci e naturall y occur­ Effecti ve meth od are needed to identify areas of hi gh ring in pl ant communi tie of th e Dakotas on Ol!_r fl ori ti c quali ty fo r pre ervati on and to evaluate the checkli st. However, th e li sting of taxa is not intended to effecti veness of current re toration and management serve as an exhausti ve fl ora of the region· we developed effort .