Riparian Vegetation - Western Riverside Co. - UCR CCB [ds639]

The Western Riverside County Multiple Species Conservation Plan (WRCMSHCP) is the largest conservation plan in southern California and seeks to protect approximately 500,000 acres of natural habitats (Dudek and Associates 2003). The University of California Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) began developing methods and collecting data to describe coastal sage scrub and riparian communities in the WRCMSHCP preserve system as part of the Community Monitoring Program (Barrows et al. 2005; CCB 2005). This data was used to help determine the status of many of the 146 species protected by the WRCMSHCP plan and provide information on ecological relationships and processes important in managing these communities.

Riparian habitats within the Plan Area have become increasingly fragmented and isolated as areas are being developed or converted for agriculture. In addition, these habitats are vulnerable to threats such as invasive plants. CCB conducted surveys for birds, soil arthropods, and vegetation in cottonwood-willow and southern willow scrub riparian habitats in 2004 as part of the Community Monitoring Plan. Within each riparian corridor, biologists surveyed 281 stations along the length of the corridor, spaced at 200 m intervals. Vegetation was sampled following a minimal disturbance protocol developed by Point Reyes Bird Observatory (http://www.prbo.org/tools/pc/relevepr.html). This method was designed to assess the habitat of the bird point counts (see ds212), which may serve as a predictor for species occurrence and can be used to track changes over time (Allen et al. 2005). Habitat assessments were conducted following the bird point count surveys. A 50 meter plot was established at each survey station and the types of vegetation layers: tree (greater than 5 m), shrub (0.5 - 5 m), and herb (less than 0.5 m); and respective species found within the riparian habitat were recorded. Relative cover of each species and height estimates were also recorded (Allen et al. 2005).

This data layer represents the vegetation layer characterization results of the riparian corridor vegetation community monitoring sampling and was compiled as part of the Southern California Data Integration Project.

REFERENCES

Allen, M.F., John T. Rotenberry, Kristine L. Preston, Ken J. Halama, Tracy Tennant, Cameron W. Barrows, Vanessa Rivera del Rio, Antonio Celis Murrillo, Xiongwen Chen, and Veronique M. Rorive. 2005. CCB 2005: Towards developing a monitoring framework for Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plans. Part I. Center for Conservation Biology. Paper CCB2005. http://repositories.cdlib.org/ccb/CCB2005

Barrows, C.W., M.B. Swartz, W.L. Hodges, M.F. Allen, J.T. Rotenberry, and B.L. Li. 2005. A framework for monitoring multiple species conservation plans. Journal of Wildlife Management 69: 1333-1345.

Center for Conservation Biology. 2005. Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game, Inland Ecosystems of California: Resource Assessment Program.

Dudek and Associates. 2003. Western Riverside County Multiple Species Conservation Plan. Final MSHCP, County of Riverside, Riverside California.

Disclaimer: The State makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or adequacy of these data and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in these data. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed, or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to these data.

Recommended Citation: Center for Conservation Biology (CCB). UCR_CCB_RIPvegetation2004 [ds XXX]. Digital Data. Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS). Retrieved on DATE from http://bios.dfg.ca.gov.