Monitoring shows vegetation change at multiple scales

Merenlender, A; Heise, K; Bartolome, J; Allen-Diaz, B

Monitoring shows vegetation change at multiple scales

Authors

Adina M. Merenlender
Kerry L. Heise
James W. Bartolome
Barbara H. Allen-Diaz

Authors Affiliations

A.M. Merenlender is Extension Specialist, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM), UC Berkeley; K.L. Heise is Botanist and Research Associate, UC Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program, UC Berkeley; J.W. Bartolome is Professor, ESPM, UC Berkeley; B.H. Allen-Diaz is Professor, ESPM, UC Berkeley.

Publication Information

Hilgardia 55(6):42-47. DOI:10.3733/ca.v055n06p42. November 2001.

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Abstract

Several historical data sets from the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) provide valuable information on vegetation dynamics at multiple spatial and temporal scales. An early botanical survey by Harold Heady and Al Murphy provides a baseline for examining landscape-level changes in species richness and distribution over 50 years. We conducted a floristic survey between 1995 and 1999 and found gains and losses of native and non-native species abundance across the field station. On two sites where sheep were removed in 1958, permanent transects provide valuable information about plant community responses to protection from livestock grazing; in the oak understory, native perennial blue wildrye increased steadily, while in grasslands native purple needlegrass was less abundant after 43 years. On a cleared watershed, originally diverse in hardwood species, we found that only interior live oak and coast live oak were significantly reestablished after 30 years.

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