Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:This work will be of interest to scientists, environmental professionals, educators, students, land managers, amateur naturalists, and many others with an interest in learning more about the biological diversity of the southeastern United States. It would be useful as supplemental material for classes in ecology, wetland science, forestry, restoration ecology, conservation biology, or landscape architecture. The work will contain important and unique features that will make it of value to a wide range of users. The work will present detailed descriptions and explanations of the ecological patterns and processes on the landscape of this portion of the world. The comprehensive community classification and descriptions will provide a system for naming and describing sites for many purposes, including basic research, ecological site description, biodiversity inventory, conservation planning, and land management. The detailed qualitative and quantitative descriptive materials will provide a source of information on reference conditions to guide quality assessment and restoration in all types of terrestrial and wetland ecosystems. The ecological synthesis and the description of vegetation types will provide an unparalleled resource for teaching about natural vegetation in classes on ecology, forestry, restoration biology, and landscape design. The detailed community treatments will supplement and clarify the more general descriptions in the US National Vegetation Classification and ensure more effective management by federal agencies. As the first work of this scale to be organized around the US National Vegetation Classification, it will serve as a model for similar treatments in other regions. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over 1100 volunteers, including numerous graduate students, have participated in the collection of the CVS database. Many of these individuals remain keenly interested in the vegetation of the region and would make wide use of the web resources we intend to provide. We expect to engage them further by providing a mechanism for submission of occurrence records of communities by qualified amateurs, which could be viewed on our website. This, in turn, should help professional researchers and conservationists to locate efficiently relevant new sites. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A primary impact of this work should be the dissemination of new understanding of the importance of scale of observation for study of diversity and assembly of ecological communities. The resultant new understanding of how community diversity and assembly vary with scale of observation and ecological context within the Carolinas should demonstrate the need for, and should lead to, similar studies in other systems and ultimately contribute to a broader understanding of these ecological phenomena. The adoption by NEON of a variant of the CVS sampling protocol suggests that, looking forward, the NEON dataset will be one of the best available to build on and expand on our findings. More broadly, we hope to contribute to a transformation in how vegetation data are collected, which in turn should make them more broadly useful to the ecological community. Data from vegetation sample units are used for many purposes beyond those explored in the proposed synthesis, such as documenting compositional patterns, change over time, and inventory and monitoring of natural ecosystems. For all of these, observations that span multiple scales could lead to substantive changes in perspective. There exists broad interest in the vegetation of Carolinas. Although descriptive ecology is not a primary focus of this proposal, the results should inform the ongoing revision process for classification of natural ecosystems as well as inventory and monitoring of natural vegetation types. Appropriate information on natural communities spanning multiple scales of observation will be available on the Carolina Vegetation Survey website and will be shared with the relevant state Natural Heritage Programs and the US National Vegetation Classification initiative. Finally, our web resources already include a tool for generation of restoration targets for riparian systems across the Carolinas. We plan to expand this tool to cover more broadly the vegetation of the Carolinas as observed at multiple scales, and to suggest the likely species pool for any given site. We anticipate this to be broadly valuable to both environmental professionals and the engaged citizens of our states. Moreover, the infrastructure should be sharable with other regions. Already we have built a vegetation prediction tool for the Natural Heritage Program of West Virginia and have been invited to do the same for other states. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The future focus of this project will be to exploit our unique CVS dataset to, for the first time for any region, clearly document and explain local and regional variation in patterns and processes in vegetation as observed across multiple scales. Ecologists have a history of searching for universal patterns in phenomena such as species-area relationships and the assembly of communities. It is our assertion that this is overly simplistic, in that pattern and process can be expected to vary as a consequence of site-specific attributes and history. In short, we embrace Robert May's 1986 assertion that "... ecology is a science of contingent generalizations, where future trends depend (much more than in the physical sciences) on past history and on the environmental and biological setting." We expect that analysis of our detailed CVS dataset will allow us to tease out these contextual dependences of species diversity and community assembly where past workers have largely only sought broad generalities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Plots collected as part of the CVS effort have been used in numerous publications to document compositional variation in vegetation of the southeastern US. Broad descriptive treatments of vegetation have been published for longleaf pine-dominated ecosystems, riparian vegetation of the southern Appalachians, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain, maritime forests, Piedmont upland forests, southern Appalachian upland forests, montane xeric woodlands,and Appalachian high-elevation outcrops. All of this work has served to inform the development of the US National Vegetation Classificationand the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program community classification.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Peet, R.K., K.A. Palmquist, T.R. Wentworth, M.P. Schafale, A.S. Weakley, and M.T. Lee. 2017. Carolina Vegetation Survey: An initiative to improve regional implementation of the U.S National Vegetation Classification. Phytocoenologia Special Issue Classification Approaches 1-9, published online December 2017. DOI: 10.1127/phyto/2017/0168.
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Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators, scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition (pulse) to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through presentations at professional meetings, through publications, and via our web site: cvs.bio.unc.edu. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, the focus will be on publications and synthesis, the latter including: (1)continuing efforts to support the US National Vegetation Classification (USNVC) through analysis of data from vegetation plots; (2) plant species diversity; and (3) assembly of plant communities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) during 2015. We conducted a statewide sampling event (pulse) that focused on vegetation of the South Carolina Piedmont (Calhoun, Darlington, Dorchester, Kershaw, Lancaster, Lee, and Richland Counties; May, 2015, 24 plots established). We created a summary of the Xeric Longleaf Pine USNVC Group G154 (completed for Proceedings of NVC, manuscript for Phytocoenologia in prep) (for USGS). We began creating summaries of Longleaf Pine USNVC Groups G009, G190, and G596 (for USGS). We wrote a draft manuscript on the adequacy of plot-based data supporting the USNVC in the southeastern US (in review by colleagues).
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Kalusov�, V., M. Chytr�, R.K. Peet, and T.R. Wentworth 2015. Intercontinental comparison of habitat levels of invasion between temperate North America and Europe. Ecology 96(12): 3363-3373. DOI: 10.1890/15-0021.1.
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Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators, scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition (pulse) to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Via publications and our web site: cvs.bio.unc.edu. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Conducta statewide sampling event (pulse) that focused on vegetation of the South Carolina Piedmont (Calhoun, Darlington, Dorchester, Kershaw, Lancaster, Lee, and Richland Counties. Create a summary of the Xeric Longleaf Pine USNVC Group G154 (for USGS). Createsummaries of Longleaf Pine USNVC Groups G009, G190, and G596 (for USGS). Write a draft manuscript on the adequacy of plot-based data supporting the USNVC in the southeastern US.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) during 2014. 1. We conducted a statewide sampling event (pulse) that focused on vegetation of North Carolina during the spring of 2014. Focal areas included the mountains (Carter (TN), Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Mitchell, and Swain Counties), upper Piedmont (Alexander and Wilkes Counties), upper coastal plain-sandhills-inner Piedmont (Columbus, Hoke, Montgomery, Robeson, Scotland, Stanly, and Union Counties), and outer coastal plain/outer banks (Dare and Tyrrell Counties). We added 104 permanent vegetation plots to the CVS database. 2. We completed a summary of Piedmont natural communities for NRCS. 3. We completed a substantial refinement of the CVS vegetation database for the Carolinas, including an update of taxonomic nomenclature, update of community assignments, correction of outliers, review of database content with standardization and corrections of multiple plot descriptors, and migration of the database to VegBank.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Kalusov�, V., M. Chytr�, R.K. Peet, and T.R. Wentworth 2014. Alien species pool influences the level of habitat invasion in intercontinental exchange of alien plants. Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(12):1366-1375. DOI: 10.1111/geb.12209.
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Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators, scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Each of the "pulse" events conducted by the Carolina Vegetation Survey brings together volunteers from throughout the botanical community, including university faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students, conservation and natural resource managment professionals (in governmental, non-governmental, and for-profit sectors), and amateur botanists without specific professional affiiliations. Each pulse event results in training and professional development opportunities for 40-60 individuals, and over 1,000 individuals have participated since the inception of the CVS effort in the later 1980s. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Several peer-reviewed scientific articles using the CVS data base have been published over the past years, and numerous popular newspaper and related articles featuring CVS have been published. The latter may be accessed at http://cvs.bio.unc.edu/press.htm. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We plan to work on an initial draft volume for one of the four major physiographic regions of the Carolinas (Mountains, Piedmont, Coastal Plain, or Coastal Fringe) during this period to serve as a catalyst for production of the other three volumes (one for each of the remaining physiographic regions) anticipated in a series on the natural communities of the Carolinas. Specific plans include: (1) Outlining the overall structure of the different volumes to be produced. This will be followed by development of a general outline for each of the proposed volumes, to include introductory material on physical environment and geography of the region, general background about broader vegetation patterns, and a listing of specific vegetation types to be documented in detail. Sampling protocol for vegetation inventory (already established) will be reviewed thoroughly. (2) Developing the classification system to be used, keeping in mind that conformation to national and international standards is essential. (3) Considering appropriate means for analysis of the data, using statistical tools that will facilitate efficient summary of available information and comparison with other types. (4) Developing a format for documenting each vegetation type, to include a brief literature review, general description of the type, summary tabular information, distribution map, conservation status, and illustrations. (5) Creating a prototype volume for one of the four major physiographic regions of the Carolinas, likely either the Mountains or Coastal Fringe, given that data collection for these regions is now largely complete.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) during 2013. Two vegetation sampling events (pulses) were conducted that focused on vegetation of North Carolina during the spring/summer of 2013. These were in the central Piedmont of North Carolina (Asheboro region and NC Zoological Park, May 2013, 37 plots established), and the west-central Piedmont of North Carolina (July 2013, 55 plots established). Doctoral programs were completed by graduate student contributors to the collection and analysis of CVS data: Dr. Kyle Palmquist (Community Assembly and Vegetation Patterns Across Space and Time in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem); and Dr. Jacqueline White (The Impact of the Altered Floodplain Hydrology of the Lower Roanoke River on Tree Regeneration and Floodplain Forest Composition). Refinement of the vegetation database for North/South Carolina continued, including data entry, quality assurance/quality control, and plant identification.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) during 2012: (1) two vegetation sampling events (pulses) that focused on vegetation of North and South Carolina during the spring/summer of 2012. These were in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina (May 2012, 31 plots), and the Central Piedmont of South Carolina (July 2012, 46 plots); (2) guidance for the doctoral research project of Ms. Kyle Palmquist (working at UNC-Chapel Hill). Ms. Palmquist studied vegetation change in longleaf pine-dominated ecosystems at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and across the southeastern portion of NC (including the Green Swamp), on the Roanoke River, and in Duke Forest; and (3) efforts to refine the vegetation database for North/South Carolina, including data entry, quality assurance/quality control, and plant identification. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project: Dr. Robert K. Peet, Professor of Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6942, Email: peet@unc.edu; Dr. Alan Weakley, Curator, University of North Carolina Herbarium, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6931, Email: weakley@unc.edu; Mr. Michael Schafale, Ecologist, NC Natural Heritage Program, Phone: 919/707-8627, Email: michael.schafale@ncdenr.gov. Partner Organizations, Opportunities for Training or Professional Development: Faculty, staff, and students from NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources have participated since 1987 in a regional consortium known as the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS). This organization draws on vegetation scientists from NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Western Carolina University, Duke University, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, and The Nature Conservancy, among other federal, state, and private organizations. Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition (pulse) to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators, scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS during 2012 included the following: (1) addition of new data to the existing CVS plot database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives; (2) management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects (this includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database; and (3) provision of automated tools for identifying appropriate restoration targets. In 2012, CVS established a partnership with the US Geological Survey and Ecological Society of America to revise the National Vegetation Classification for the drier segment of southeastern longleaf pine-dominated communities. CVS also established a partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide ecological site descriptions for the Piedmont.
Publications
- Peet, R.K., M.T. Lee, M.F. Boyle, T.R. Wentworth, M.P. Schafale, and A.S. Weakley. 2012. Vegetation plot database of the Carolina Vegetation Survey. In Vegetation databases for the 21st century. Edited by Dengler, J., Oldeland, J., Jansen, F., Chytry, M., Ewald, J., Finckh, M., Glockler, F., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Peet, R.K., Schaminee, J.H.J. Biodiversity & Ecology 4:243-253. DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00081.
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Progress 10/01/10 to 09/30/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) in collaboration with the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP): (1) CVS conducted two full vegetation sampling events (pulses) that focused on vegetation of North and South Carolina during the spring/summer of 2011. These were centered in the southwestern Piedmont of South Carolina (May 2011, 63 plots) and the Triangle Region of North Carolina (June 2011, 58 plots); (2) CVS continued to work with and provide guidance for graduate student projects in 2011 (all conducted at UNC-Chapel Hill), including Elizabeth Matthews (riparian vegetation of Piedmont river basins), Stephanie Seymour (vegetation of Piedmont seeps and upland depressions), Megan Faestel (Coastal Plain riparian vegetation of the Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins), Kimberly Israel (vegetation of Duke Forest), and Kyle Palmquist (vegetation change in longleaf pine-dominated ecosystems at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune); and (3) CVS completed keys to maritime fringe associations of North and South Carolina in the US National Vegetation Classification. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project: Dr. Robert K. Peet, Professor of Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6942, Email: peet@unc.edu; Dr. Alan Weakley, Curator, University of North Carolina Herbarium, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6931, Email: weakley@unc.edu; Mr. Michael Schafale, Ecologist, NC Natural Heritage Program, Phone: 919/707-8627, Email: michael.schafale@ncdenr.gov; Dr. Joel Gramling, Assistant Professor of Biology, The Citadel, Phone: 843/953-6459, Email: joel.gramling@citadel.edu. Partner Organizations, Opportunities for Training or Professional Development: Faculty, staff, and students from NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources have participated since 1987 in a regional consortium known as the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS). This organization draws on vegetation scientists from NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Western Carolina University, Duke University, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, and The Nature Conservancy, among other federal, state, and private organizations. Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition (pulse) to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators and scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS include the following: (1) addition of new data to the existing CVS plot database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives; (2) management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects (this includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database, and provision of tools for generating summary reports of data in the CVS archive); (3) development of tools and services for analysis and reporting of data in ways that help EEP meet its objectives of identifying mitigation targets and determining the success of ongoing mitigation and restoration projects (particular emphasis is placed on providing restoration targets for specific geographic locations and site conditions); and (4) improvement of EEP protocols for monitoring of current and future mitigation projects and reporting of data from those projects.
Publications
- Matthews, E.M., Peet, R.K., and Weakley, A.S. 2011. Classification and description of alluvial plant communities of the Piedmont region, North Carolina, U.S.A. Applied Vegetation Science 14:485-505.
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Progress 10/01/09 to 09/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) in collaboration with the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP): (1) CVS conducted two full vegetation sampling events (pulses) and one mini sampling event that focused on vegetation of North Carolina during the spring/summer/fall of 2010. These were centered in the northern Piedmont (May 2010, 48 plots), the western mountains (June 2010, 48 plots), and South Fork of the Catawba River (September 2010, 8 plots); (2) CVS continued to work with and provide guidance for graduate student projects in 2010 (all conducted at UNC-Chapel Hill), including Elizabeth Matthews (riparian vegetation of Piedmont river basins), Stephanie Seymour (vegetation of Piedmont seeps and upland depressions), Megan Faestel (Coastal Plain riparian vegetation of the Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins), and Kyle Palmquist (vegetation change in longleaf pine-dominated ecosystems at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune); (3) CVS completed identification of the >6000 plots in the plot database to types in the US National Vegetation Classification and the NC Natural Heritage Program vegetation classification, both to facilitate selection of plots for developing restoration targets, and to determine the most critical natural communities to address in future vegetation sampling; (4) CVS developed the prototype for a restoration target generation tool that identifies appropriate species composition for a given site based on input of environmental conditions and location; and (5) CVS worked toward enhancement of protocols for monitoring vegetation in restoration projects. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project: Dr. Robert K. Peet, Professor of Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6942, Email: robert_peet@unc.edu; Dr. Alan Weakley, Curator, University of North Carolina Herbarium, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6931, Email: weakley@unc.edu; Mr. Michael Schafale, Ecologist, NC Natural Heritage Program, Phone: 919/733-4181, Email: michael.schafale@ncdenr.gov; Dr. Forbes Boyle, Carolina Vegetation Survey Project Manager, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6934, Email: mboyle@unc.edu; Dr. Joel Gramling, Assistant Professor of Biology, The Citadel, Phone: 843/953-6459, Email: joel.gramling@citadel.edu. Partner Organizations, Opportunities for Training or Professional Development: Faculty, staff, and students from NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources have participated since 1987 in a regional consortium known as the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS). This organization draws on vegetation scientists from NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Western Carolina University, Duke University, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, and The Nature Conservancy, among other federal, state, and private organizations. Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition (pulse) to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators, scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS include the following: (1) addition of new data to the existing CVS plot database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives; (2) management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects (this includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database, and provision of tools for generating summary reports of data in the CVS archive); (3) development of tools and services for analysis and reporting of data in ways that help EEP meet its objectives of identifying mitigation targets and determining the success of ongoing mitigation and restoration projects (particular emphasis is placed on providing restoration targets for specific geographic locations and site conditions); and (4) improvement of EEP protocols for monitoring of current and future mitigation projects and reporting of data from those projects.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|
Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) in collaboration with the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP): (1) CVS conducted three vegetation sampling events (pulses) that focused on Piedmont and Coastal Plain vegetation of North and South Carolina during the spring/summer of 2009. These were centered in the Pamlimarle Peninsula and Pamlico River, NC (May 2009, 62 plots), in the south-central Piedmont of NC/SC (June 2009, 57 plots), and in the maritime fringe of SC (July 2009, 94 plots); (2) CVS collaborated with EEP to present a two-day workshop (June 9-10, 2009) focused on introducing professionals in the field of ecological restoration to the CVS-EEP field inventory protocol, data entry tool, and other information critical to documentation of planted and natural vegetation of mitigation sites; (3) CVS continued to support graduate student projects in 2009, including Brenda Wichmann (NCSU), working on mountain bog vegetation (completed in 2009), Elizabeth Matthews (UNC-CH), working on riparian vegetation of Piedmont river basins, Stephanie Seymour, (UNC-CH) working on Piedmont seeps and upland depressions (76 plots inventoried in 2009), and Megan Faestel (UNC-CH), working on Coastal Plain riparian vegetation of the Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins (60 plots inventoried in 2009); (4) CVS initiated an effort to identify critical gaps in its vegetation database and to inventory plots in the NC/SC maritime fringe representing these gaps (133 plots inventoried in 2009); and (5) CVS continued identification of the ~6000 plots in the plot database to types in the US National Vegetation Classification and the NC Natural Heritage Program vegetation classification, both to facilitate selection of plots for developing restoration targets, and to determine the most critical natural communities to address in future vegetation sampling. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project: Dr. Robert K. Peet, Professor of Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6942, Email: robert_peet@unc.edu; Dr. Alan Weakley, Curator, University of North Carolina Herbarium, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6931, Email: weakley@unc.edu; Mr. Michael Schafale, Ecologist, NC Natural Heritage Program, Phone: 919/733-4181, Email: michael.schafale@ncmail.net; Mr. Forbes Boyle, Carolina Vegetation Survey Project Manager, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6934, Email: mboyle@unc.edu; Dr. Joel Gramling, Assistant Professor of Biology, The Citadel, Phone: 843/953-6459, Email: joel.gramling@citadel.edu. Partner Organizations, Opportunities for Training or Professional Development: Faculty, staff, and students from NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources have participated since 1987 in a regional consortium known as the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS). This organization draws on vegetation scientists from NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Western Carolina University, Duke University, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, and The Nature Conservancy, among other federal, state, and private organizations. Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition (pulse) to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators, scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS include the following: (1) addition of new data to the existing CVS plot database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives; (2) management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects (this includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database, and provision of tools for generating summary reports of data in the CVS archive); (3) development of tools and services for analysis and reporting of data in ways that help EEP meet its objectives of identifying mitigation targets and determining the success of ongoing mitigation and restoration projects (particular emphasis is placed on providing restoration targets for specific geographic locations and site conditions); and (4) improvement of EEP protocols for monitoring of current and future mitigation projects and reporting of data from those projects.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) in collaboration with the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP): (1) CVS conducted two vegetation sampling events (pulses) that focused on Coastal Plain vegetation of North Carolina during the summer of 2008. These were centered in Columbus County, NC and Horry County, SC (May/June 2008, 76 plots), and in the Upper Tar River and Meherrin/Chowan Rivers (July 2008, 66 plots); (2) CVS collaborated with EEP to present a two-day workshop (June 17-18, 2008) focused on introducing professionals in the field of ecological restoration to the CVS-EEP field inventory protocol, data entry tool, and other information critical to documentation of planted and natural vegetation of mitigation sites; (3) CVS continued to support two graduate student projects in 2008, Brenda Wichmann (NCSU), working on mountain bog vegetation, and Elizabeth Matthews (UNC-CH), working on riparian vegetation of Piedmont river basins; (4) CVS completed work on updated scientific nomenclature of all species represented in the plot database; and (5) CVS continued identification of the ~6000 plots in the plot database to types in the US National Vegetation Classification and the NC Natural Heritage Program vegetation classification, so as to facilitate selection of plots for developing restoration targets, and so as to determine the most critical natural communities to address in future vegetation sampling. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project: Dr. Robert K. Peet, Professor of Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6942, Email: robert_peet@unc.edu; Dr. Alan Weakley, Curator, University of North Carolina Herbarium, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6931, Email: weakley@unc.edu; Mr. Michael Schafale, Ecologist, NC Natural Heritage Program, Phone: 919/733-4181, Email: michael.schafale@ncmail.net; Mr. Forbes Boyle, Carolina Vegetation Survey Project Manager, UNC-Chapel Hill, Phone: 919/962-6934, Email: mboyle@unc.edu. Partner Organizations, Opportunities for Training or Professional Development: Faculty, staff, and students from NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources have participated since 1987 in a regional consortium known as the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS). This organization draws on vegetation scientists from NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Western Carolina University, Duke University, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, and The Nature Conservancy, among other federal, state, and private organizations. Each year since 1988, CVS has sponsored at least one week-long field expedition to inventory natural communities in a portion of North and/or South Carolina. Using a published methodology developed for CVS, volunteers establish and inventory permanent plots placed in representative natural areas. Volunteer participants, including students from universities and colleges throughout the southeast, have received valuable training in inventory techniques, ecology, and plant systematics. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the products of this project include any individuals interested in the natural vegetation of the Carolinas, including educators and scientists in both public and private organizations, including for-profit environmental consulting firms. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS include the following: (1) addition of new data to the existing CVS plot database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives; (2) management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects (this includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database, and provision of tools for generating summary reports of data in the CVS archive); (3) development of tools and services for analysis and reporting of data in ways that help EEP meet its objectives of identifying mitigation targets and determining the success of ongoing mitigation and restoration projects (particular emphasis is placed on providing restoration targets for specific geographic locations and site conditions); and (4) improvement of EEP protocols for monitoring of current and future mitigation projects and reporting of data from those projects.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07
Outputs
The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) in collaboration with the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP): (1) CVS conducted two vegetation sampling events (pulses) that focused on Coastal Plain vegetation of North Carolina during summer of 2007. These were centered in the western sandhills of North Carolina (May 2007, 72 plots), and in Croatan National Forest, eastern Carteret County, and Core Banks of North Carolina (July 2007, 125 plots); (2) CVS collaborated with EEP to present a two-day workshop (June 5-6, 2007) focused on introducing professionals in the field of ecological restoration to the CVS-EEP field inventory protocol, data entry tool, and other information critical to documentation of planted and natural vegetation of mitigation sites; (3) CVS continued to support two graduate student projects in 2007, Brenda Wichmann (NCSU), working on mountain bog vegetation, and Elizabeth
Matthews (UNC-CH), working on riparian vegetation of Piedmont river basins; (4) CVS completed work on updated scientific nomenclature of all species represented in the plot database; and (5) CVS continued identification of the ~6000 plots in the plot database to types in the US National Vegetation Classification and the NC Natural Heritage Program vegetation classification, so as to facilitate selection of plots for developing restoration targets, and so as to determine the most critical types to address in future vegetation sampling.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS include the following: (1) addition of new data to the existing CVS plot database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives; (2) management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects (this includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database, and provision of
tools for generating summary reports of data in the CVS archive); (3) development of tools and services for analysis and reporting of data in ways that help EEP meet its objectives of identifying mitigation targets and determining the success of ongoing mitigation and restoration projects (particular emphasis is placed on providing restoration targets for specific geographic locations and site conditions); and (4) improvement of EEP protocols for monitoring of current and future mitigation projects and reporting of data from those projects.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/06
Outputs
The following activities were completed in support of this project by the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) in collaboration with the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP): (1) CVS worked with EEP personnel to assess EEP program needs for vegetation data generation and management. This led to a plan for development of a field protocol, an instruction manual, datasheets, a data entry tool, and training activities. (2) In consultation with EEP personnel, CVS developed a common data collection protocol for EEP and CVS sampling activities. (3) CVS constructed a preliminary data entry tool, linked to an access database with a data model consistent with national standards and the architecture of the VegBank data archive (see http://cvs.bio.unc.edu/methods/database.mdb). This tool was successfully tested at an EEP training workshop in May 2006 and was used by a select group of contractors during fall 2006. (4) CVS conducted four vegetation sampling events
(pulses) that focused on Coastal Plain vegetation of the Carolinas during summers of 2005 & 2006. These were centered in Brunswick County NC (July 2005, 86 plots), the Francis Marion Forest SC (June 2005, 52 plots), Bladen County NC (May 2006, 51 plots), and Elizabeth City NC (July 2006, 51 plots). A surprisingly large proportion of the plots did not fit well within established types of the National Vegetation Classification, reinforcing the need for additional data collection and analysis. Data for all of these projects have been processed and plant collections have been identified. (5) CVS collaborated with EEP and the Water Quality Group at NC State University to present a three-day workshop (June 14-16, 2006) focused on introducing professionals in the field of ecological restoration to the CVS-EEP field inventory protocol, data entry tool, and other information critical to documentation of planted and natural vegetation of mitigation sites. (6) CVS initiated two graduate student
projects in January 2006, corresponding to the students it anticipated supporting for the first two years of this collaborative project. Brenda Wichmann (NCSU) worked on mountain bog vegetation, and Elizabeth Matthews (UNC-CH) worked on riparian vegetation of the Cape Fear Basin. Both collected field data during summer 2006 and have completed data entry and identification of unknown plant species. (7) CVS initiated a detailed QA/QC review of the extant data in the CVS database. (8) CVS completed processing and analysis of the backlog of soil samples from past sampling events and incorporated the data into the CVS database. (9) CVS initiated work on processing the backlog of vegetation plots from past sampling events as a step toward entry of those data into the CVS database. (10) CVS initiated identification of the 6000 plots in the CVS database to types in the US National Vegetation Classification and the NC Natural Heritage Program vegetation classification so as to facilitate
selection of plots for developing restoration targets, and so as to determine the most critical types to address in future vegetation sampling. To date, approximately 1400 plots have been identified to type.
Impacts
The Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) initiated a partnership in May 2005 with a set of goals designed to benefit both organizations in terms of generation, management, and distribution of vegetation data for both natural and mitigation sites. Impacts of this cooperative venture between EEP and CVS include the following: (1) Addition of new data to the existing CVS database to provide more comprehensive coverage of the diversity of and geographic variation in high-quality examples of the natural communities of North Carolina and vicinity to be used to establish target conditions for restoration initiatives. (2) Management, curation, and digital distribution of vegetation plot data generated by EEP as part of its monitoring of mitigation projects. This includes, in part, provision of data entry and delivery tools to facilitate easy submission of data in a form compatible with the CVS database, and provision of tools
for generating summary reports of data in the CVS archive. (3) Development of tools and services for analysis and reporting of data in ways that help EEP meet its objectives of identifying mitigation targets and determining the success of ongoing mitigation and restoration projects. Particular emphasis is placed on providing restoration targets for specific geographic locations and site conditions. (4) Improvement of EEP protocols for monitoring of current and future mitigation projects and reporting data from those projects.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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