Legacy Data for a Northern Prairie Grassland—Woodworth Study Area, North Dakota, 1963–89 Open-File Report 2014–1188 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Legacy Data for a Northern Prairie Grassland—Woodworth Study Area, North Dakota, 1963–89 By Shelby H. Williams and Jane E. Austin Open-File Report 2014–1188 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior SALLY JEWELL, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2014 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment—visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Suggested citation: Williams, S.H., and Austin, J.E., 2014, Legacy data for a northern prairie grassland–Woodworth Study Area, North Dakota, 1963–89: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014–1188, 85 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/0fr20141188. ISSN 2331-1258 (online) Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also may contain copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner. ii Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 1 Administrative and Research History ......................................................................................................... 3 Area Description ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Geography ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Glacial History ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Wetland Water Balance ............................................................................................................................. 8 Wetland and Water Chemistry ................................................................................................................... 9 Atmospheric Chemistry ............................................................................................................................ 10 Weather History ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Settlement History .................................................................................................................................... 14 Management History.................................................................................................................................... 15 General Land Use History ........................................................................................................................ 15 Habitat Management ................................................................................................................................ 16 Burning ................................................................................................................................................. 19 Seeding ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Grazing and Agriculture ........................................................................................................................ 22 Chemicals ............................................................................................................................................ 22 Vegetation Surveys...................................................................................................................................... 24 General Vegetation Description ............................................................................................................... 24 Early Studies ............................................................................................................................................ 24 Long-term Vegetation Transects .............................................................................................................. 25 Meyer 1980 Vegetation Transects ........................................................................................................... 28 Plant Phenology ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Vegetative Structure ................................................................................................................................ 31 Wetlands and Wetland Vegetation ........................................................................................................... 33 Preliminary Summary of the WSA Plant Community ................................................................................... 35 The WSA Plant Community ..................................................................................................................... 35 Floristic Quality Assessment .................................................................................................................... 36 Additional Data Resources .......................................................................................................................... 38 Wildlife Data ............................................................................................................................................. 38 Photograph Stations ................................................................................................................................ 38 Herbaria ................................................................................................................................................... 39 Spatial Data ............................................................................................................................................. 39 Data Management Strategy ......................................................................................................................... 40 ASCII ....................................................................................................................................................... 41 Metadata .................................................................................................................................................. 41 Centinels .................................................................................................................................................. 42 Paper Copies ........................................................................................................................................... 42 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 42 References Cited ......................................................................................................................................... 43 Appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 49 iii Appendix 1. Unpublished reports relating to the Woodworth Study Area (WSA) archived at Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center .............................................................................................................. 50 Appendix 2. Published and unpublished reports that use vegetation or weather data from the Woodworth Study Area (WSA) region ......................................................................................................................... 51 Appendix 3. Woodworth Study Area (WSA) tract locations and ownership .............................................. 52 Appendix 4. Soil classifications at the Woodworth Study Area (WSA) using the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) ............................................................................................................................... 54 Appendix 5. Original survey map of townships encompassing the Woodworth Study Area (WSA) from 1875 ......................................................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix 6. Locations of man-made structures at the Woodworth Study Area (WSA) ............................ 56 Appendix 7. Location of North Dakota cities and survey sites mentioned in the text................................ 57 Appendix 8. Geographic Information System (GIS) layers of the Woodworth Study Area (WSA) available as shapefiles ...........................................................................................................................................