Grassland and Fire Effects Monitoring in the Southern Plains

During 2010, a crew funded by both the I&M and Fire programs worked on a pilot of the collaborative field efforts. In addition to surveying standard Fire Program shrub transects and conducting biomass sampling (USDI National Park Service 2003), the crew fielded by the Southern Plains Fire Group sampled species composition and abundance using methods employed by the Southern Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network. Conditions were such in 2011 that each program had to field a monitoring team, but each team followed the integrated protocol and data was pooled for analysis. A total of 109 permanent transects were monitored across the Southern Plains in 2010, while 96 transects were sampled in 2011. The results presented in this two-year report represent two field seasons with very different growing conditions.