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AIM methods photographs line-point intercept with veg. heights - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
AIM methods photographs line-point intercept with veg. heights - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
AIM methods photographs line-point intercept with veg. heights canopy gap soil stability soil pit (first plot visit) plot species inventory supplementary plant production plot photographs line-point intercept
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AIM methods
- photographs
- line-point intercept with veg. heights
- canopy gap
- soil stability
- soil pit (first plot visit)
- plot species inventory
supplementary
- plant production
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plot photographs
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line-point intercept
- recorded every 25 cm along transects
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line-point intercept
- a pin flag (minus the flag) is dropped vertically at the appropriate point
- n the transect
- any plants touching the pin are recorded, as well as the soil surface
- used to estimate % cover of different plants, % of soil covered by litter, %
rock cover, % bare ground
- analogous to boot tip pace transects, but more accurate
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vegetation height
- recorded every 2.5 meters along each transect
- particularly useful for wildlife habitat (e.g., cover for greater sage-grouse)
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canopy gap
- records the spatial distribution of vegetation: are there lots of small,
evenly-spaced plants, or a few big clumps?
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soil stability test
- a small ped (piece of the soil surface) is collected, placed in a piece of
PVC pipe with mesh at the bottom
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soil stability test
- soil stability is determined by how quickly the ped dissolves in water &
with agitation (“dips”) to estimate how easily the soil will erode
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soil pit
- dug to 70 cm or until an impermeable layer (e.g., caliche) is reached
- texture, color, % rock, & effervescence recorded for each soil horizon
- used in AIM primarily to verify ecological site identification
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electronic data capture
- data is stored in DIMA, a Microsoft Access database
- electronic data entry reduces the work of data entry in the office and
increases our ability to catch errors in the field
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plot species inventory
- record all plant species occurring on the plot
- estimates plant biodiversity across the landscape, records plants too
sparse to show up in line-point intercept plant production
- follows the protocols of LCDO range condition / trend plots
- estimates forage production for stocking rate calculations
- can be compared with production-based reference conditions for
ecological sites
- measured only on plots that fit our traditional criteria for range plot
location: not within the sacrifice zone of a livestock water, but close enough to a water that it is used by livestock training videos for all of these methods are online http://www.landscapetoolbox.org/training/resources/
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Sample design: spatially-balanced stratified random sampling
- define the sample area
- all BLM land within allotments that intersect the
monuments
- decide on sample size
- 300 plots, based on 60 plots per year, 5-year revisit cycle
- split the sample area into smaller pieces (strata)
- based on ecological sites
- decide how many plots we want to put into each stratum
- based on acreage and variation / ROVs in each stratum
- within each stratum, plots are random but spatially balanced
(not as “clumpy” are purely random sampling)
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total study area
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strata
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