A Vegetation and Soil Survey Method for Surveillance Monitoring of Rangeland Environments

Abstract

<jats:p>Ecosystem surveillance monitoring is critical to managing natural resources and especially so under changing environments. Despite this importance, the design and implementation of monitoring programs across large temporal and spatial scales has been hampered by the lack of appropriately standardised methods and data streams. To address this gap, we outline a surveillance monitoring method based on permanent plots and voucher samples suited to rangeland environments around the world that is repeatable, cost-effective, appropriate for large-scale comparisons and adaptable to other global biomes. The method provides comprehensive data on vegetation composition and structure along with soil attributes relevant to plant growth, delivered as a combination of modules that can be targeted for different purposes or available resources. Plots are located in a stratified design across vegetation units, landforms and climates to enhance continental and global comparisons. Changes are investigated through revisits. Vegetation is measured to inform on composition, cover and structure. Samples of vegetation and soils are collected and tracked by barcode labels and stored long-term for subsequent analysis. Technology is used to enhance the accuracy of field methods, including differential GPS r plot locations, instrument based Leaf Area Index (LAI) measures, and three dimensional photo-panoramas for advanced analysis. A key feature of the method is the use of electronic field data collection to enhance data delivery into a publicly-accessible database.Our method is pragmatic, whilst still providing consistent data, information and samples on key vegetation and soil attributes. The method is operational and has been applied at more than 704 field locations across the Australian rangelands as part of the Ecosystem Surveillance program of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). The methodology enables continental analyses, and has been tested in communities broadly representative of rangelands globally, with components being applicable to other biomes. Here we also recommend the consultative process and guiding principles that drove the development of this method as an approach for development of the method into other biomes. The consistent, standardised and objective method enables continental, and potentially global analyses than were not previously possible with disparate programs and datasets.</jats:p>

Using generalised dissimilarity modelling and targeted field surveys to gap-fill an ecosystem surveillance network

“…TERN Ausplots are a distributed network of one-hectare, fixed location monitoring plots with scope covering all major terrestrial ecosystems in Australia. Field methods (described at length elsewhere) focus on sampling vegetation and soils (White et al 2012; Sparrow et al 2019b). We calculated percent cover of plant species from 1010 point-intercepts per plot, with identifications of all species observed anywhere in the plot made through herbarium determination of vouchers.…”

“…Here, we combined the predictive power of GDM with practical considerations to strategically gap-fill an established network of ecosystem surveillance plots – TERN Ausplots (Sparrow et al 2019a). Ausplots were originally stratified to sample environmentally distinct bioregions across the Australian rangelands (Sparrow et al 2019b; Guerin et al 2020). However, due to an expansion in scope to all terrestrial bioregions and a practical limitation on the total number of sites that can be feasibly monitored, we aimed to select regions for survey that would efficiently increase ecological representation.…”

Developing an environmental research platform in the Karoo at the Square Kilometre Array

“…Vegetation can be monitored by establishing and surveying permanent plots at SKA and on adjacent farmland at different scales across vegetation units, land types and landforms 60 , and ensuring data collection methods are constant through time 61 . This design will contribute to a landscapescale (sensu Sparrow et al 60 ) network of study plots across different climatic zones in South Africa and enhance continental and global comparisons 62 . Similar methodology was developed for surveillance of Australian rangelands as part of the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network.…”

Stocktaking the environmental coverage of a continental ecosystem observation network

“…The Ausplots field sampling protocols and datasets have been described previously (White et al 2012;Wood et al 2015;Guerin et al 2017;Sparrow et al 2019a). Here, we focus mainly on the spatial sampling of the plot network as a whole rather than the measurements taken.…”

“…Here, we assess the performance of a real network of monitoring sites -the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's (TERN) Ausplots -in terms of representativeness by comparing its environmental coverage with that of virtual plot networks based on alternative, 'retrospective' sampling schemes. TERN Ausplots are terrestrial ecosystem monitoring sites located across Australia that have been sampled using a consistent method involving quantitative measurements of vegetation and characterisation of soils (White et al 2012;Guerin et al 2017;Cleverly et al 2019;Sparrow et al 2019a). Ausplots sites form an ecosystem surveillance monitoring network (sensu Eyre et al 2011;Sparrow et al 2019b) that now has plots at over 700 locations.…”