Development of an Ecoregional Floristic Quality Assessment Method for the Northeastern United States

Abstract

Floristic quality assessments (FQA) are widely used to assess ecological condition, based on plant species' coefficients of conservatism, or C values, but these values are typically assigned at the state level, limiting their regional consistency. We developed ecoregional C values (eC) using standard expert-based team review, partly informed by preexisting state C values for the 5 EPA ecoregions that cover New England and part of New York. We evaluated a total of 3686 taxa, with separate eC values for each ecoregion in which they occurred. We compared the performance of the C and eC values using the response of FQA metrics (mean C, cover-weighted mean C) to a disturbance gradient, based on readily available datasets in Maine and Vermont. The eC values typically performed moderately better than state values and provide a region-wide tool for assessment methods. All eC values are available on the Universal FQA website.