Current and planned Current and planned tools and resourcestools and resources

Multi-institutional collaborative program

Established in 1988 to document the composition and status of natural vegetation of the Carolinas.

Provides data services & analysis to EEP and its contractors

Public Carolina vegetation plot database

Revision & documentation of the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) to better serve NC users

Tools for identification and prediction of existing and potential vegetation

Reference information on all vegetation types of the Carolinas

• Flexible in application

• Multi-scaler

• Most cited paper

in Castanea.

• Basis for new national protocols for EPA and NEON.

• Informed and consistent with the FGDC & ESA standards for vegetation sampling and classification(Ecol. Monogr. 2009)

Available data include- Species frequency- Species importance- Woody stem diameters- Site data- Soil data - Maps of occurrences- Descriptions

~5200 High-quality NC reference sites (8250)~230 NC community types with >= 4 plots (337)~420 NC community types with >= 1 plot (680)~2800 NC species (3300)

EEP contractors can use plot & NVC data to establish site-specific restoration targets.

Cheaper and better than the traditional approach

Growers can better predict material needs.EEP can better evaluate plans and anticipate

significantly higher success.

Traditional EEP restoration Traditional EEP restoration methodmethod

• Consult brief habitat-based Consult brief habitat-based plant lists or visit a nearby quasi-plant lists or visit a nearby quasi-natural reference site natural reference site

• Create a restoration planCreate a restoration plan

• Implement the planImplement the plan

• Monitor survival of planted Monitor survival of planted stems for 5 yrsstems for 5 yrs

• Replant if neededReplant if needed

Exploit a broad array of reference plots to derive site-specific restoration targets (cheaper and more accurate)

Design site-specific restoration plan (site variables increase likelihood of success)

Implement the planMonitor change and continuously predict

likelihood of successEmploy adaptive management along the way

Detailed, justifiable, & efficient generation of restoration targets.

State-of-the-art predictions that satisfy the most stringent current and future restoration guidelines.

Phase 1 – Web tool for documenting reference conditions by NVC types (partially implemented).

Phase 2 – Constrain NVC types and plots by geographic region (in development).

Phase 3 – Web tool for predicting a target from site conditions (prototype complete -- future development).

Better, cheaper, more Better, cheaper, more defendable restoration defendable restoration targetstargets

http://cvs.bio.unc.edu

Physiognomic Group

http://cvs.bio.unc.edu/vegetation.htm

http://cvs.bio.unc.edu/data/comm/CEGL007730.xml

Coming soon (in the order shown)Flagging of exotic speciesExport functionLinks to the NC Heritage Program

community descriptionsUser ability to constrain summary

table to plots in a specific regionEmbedded key to guide navigationExpert systems to predict type based

on site variables

Evaluation of proposed species using Evaluation of proposed species using the the SE AtlasSE Atlas

NVC Community distribution of NVC Community distribution of candidate speciescandidate species

CVS proposes to develop a tool that draws on multiple datasets to aid in selection and evaluation of species for planting designs. This will help: Design firms in selecting planting

materials, EEP in evaluating proposed

planting materials, Growers to better predict demand.

Dataset 1: Community composition, as documented in the Vegetation of the Carolinas database,

Dataset 2: Geographic distribution, as documented in the SE Floristic Atlas,

Database 3: Species environmental tolerance,as documented in the CVS reference plot database.