The objectives of this effort are to characterize species presence, cover, and biomass for herbs, shrubs, and tree regeneration, and to quantify tree regeneration by species and size class.
Cover of shrubs and tree regeneration:
Two intercept lines will be used, each 10 m in length. The lines will be located in relation to the slope on each plot, one line uphill from the center of the plot and one line downhill from the center of the plot. Thus both lines will run approximately along contours. The ends of the two lines will be on the perimeter of the circular plot. Thus the midpoint of each line will be 7.39 m (slope-corrected) from the center of the plot (see attached drawing). The lines will be numbered 1 and 2, with line 1 uphill. Recording of plant intercepts will be done clockwise, so that the zero point on line 1 will be the left when looking uphill from the center of the plot. The zero point of line 2 will be to the left when looking downhill from the center of the plot. Only shrubs and untagged trees (i.e., regeneration) will be recorded on the intercept lines.
Herb cover:
We will use two, 1 x 1 m quadrats along each intercept line for herb cover. These will be placed using the intercept line as the outside edge of the quadrat, one from meter mark 2.00 to 3.00 and the other from meter mark 7.00 to 8.00. The edges of the quadrats running up of down the slope should be slope corrected so that each quadrat will have a horizontal area of 1 m2. With each plot, projected cover of herbaceous plants will be estimated ocularly. Between 10% and 90%, cover should be estimated to the nearest 5%. For larger or smaller values, cover should be estimated to the nearest percent, unless the cover is less than 1% (then estimate to nearest 0.1%).
Shrub measurements and tree regeneration:
The two belt transects will be 10 m long and 50 cm wide (also slope corrected). The belt transects will run along the intercept lines, using those lines as the outside edge. Species and basal diameter of erect shrub species (i.e., red huckleberry, vine maple,) will be recorded. Tree regeneration will also be recorded in the belt transects. Seedlings will be defined as trees less than breast height (1.37 m); saplings will be defined as trees of at least breast height and with diameter at breast height less than 5 cm. We will record seedlings by species and 10 cm height class. We will record saplings by species and 1 cm diameter class.
Species lists:
All species encountered in the cover, shrub basal diameter, and tree regeneration measurements will be recorded to initiate the whole plot species list. Then a thorough inspection will be made of the rest of the plot to add any vascular plant species not previously recorded.
