Strategies for Long-Term Monitoring of Riverscour Plant Communities to Inform Science-Based Management

Abstract

Understanding the condition of natural resources in protected areas is fundamental to their management and preservation. Long-term monitoring can provide crucial data for managers to prioritize management actions and subsequently determine their effectiveness. In five national park units in the eastern United States, the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program monitors rare riverscour communities—open habitats in which sun-loving plants grow over rocky substrates along high-gradient streams. Based on a decade of monitoring experience, we present recommendations for monitoring riverscour communities including sampling methodology, data collection methods, and subsequent management actions. Given increasing stressors from changing climate, invasive species, and altered hydrology, understanding how riverscour communities are changing is increasingly important to their protection.