Vegetation Monitoring
A grid of 560 sampling points covers MPG, with each point separated by about 200 yards. We visited each point to gather baseline data on plant communities. At each point we set up 4 transects, each 50 feet long. Botanists recorded the plant species encountered at each foot. The reports in this section discuss how we have categorized plant communities and what we have learned about the relationship between plant communities and other kinds of organisms.
As we continue to layer data onto this sampling grid we will post new discussions of interactions between plant communities and new groups of organisms. Rebecca Whithed, one of the botanists that conducted the original survey, is revisiting many of the points to document lichen and moss community composition.