Ecological Site Development: A Gentle Introduction

Abstract

ecological sites requires knowledge of plant community dynamics and species interactions, as well as interactions among plants and soil, climate, and landscape features. Developers must know what questions to ask at the beginning of the development process, what data to collect in the field, and how to use the data to create and test ecological site concepts. Ecological sites provide a general ecological foundation for management. Ecological sites bring together several ecological concepts, including plant-soil interactions, succession and climax, nonequilibrium in community structure, and ecological gradients and spatial heterogeneity. Ecological sites integrate a variety of information sources, including inventory data that link plant communities to soil profiles and landscape position, historical reconstructions, and management considerations based on local knowledge and monitoring data. A wellorganized plan is essential to properly develop a set of ecological sites. The steps in such a plan discussed here include 1) asking a set of general questions regarding ecological sites, 2) conducting literature research and field visits for reconnaissance, 3) specifying initial ecological site concepts, 4) collecting inventory data, 5) analyzing and interpreting the data collected, and finally 6) refining ecological site concepts and compiling associated information into ecological site descriptions (ESDs; Fig. 1).