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Invasive plant monitoring for northern U.S. forests

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Invasive plants are monitored through canopy cover estimates for a list of species developed by FIA for the northern region of the U.S. that is integrated with a national list. Nearly all of the invasive plants on the NRS-FIA list are exotic species, but a few native species are listed. Highly invasive native species such as rhizomatous fern are absent, making the list limited in scope. Some useful applications include describing all vegetation other than trees, competing vegetation, as well as indices for "invasive-ness," "native-ness," and others. The major advantage of the invasive survey is a fourfold increase in sample size. The primary disadvantage is that the list of invasive species does not include several important native species at the regional level. The invasive protocols offer a flexible system for estimating occurrence and abundance that can be segmented to address a wide array of questions.

Parent Publication

Keywords

statistics, estimation, sampling, modeling, remote sensing, forest health, data integrity, environmental monitoring, cover estimation, international forest monitoring

Citation

McWilliams, William H.; Morin, Randall S.; Johnson, Katherine; Moser, W. Keith; Westfall, James A. 2012. Invasive plant monitoring for northern U.S. forests. In: Morin, Randall S.; Liknes, Greg C., comps. Moving from status to trends: Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) symposium 2012; 2012 December 4-6; Baltimore, MD. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-105. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. [CD-ROM]: 283-287.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/42763