Print PageWe report on the first resampling of long-term vegetation monitoring plots established by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service in the Franklin Mountains near El Paso in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. The Franklin Mountains is the largest urban state park in the United States and because of its size, large altitudinal range, and geological complexity it is important to regional biodiversity.
Results/Conclusions
The 46 long-term monitoring sites classified into 12 vegetation types. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and correlation analyses including environmental variables suggest that gradients structuring the plant communities in the mountain range include soil pH, slope, basal cover, soil surface particle size (boulders, very course gravel, cobbles), potassium, organic matter, geologic parent material, saturation, elevation, and soil texture. Succession vector plots used in conjunction with nonmetric multidimensional scaling illustrated the magnitude of change from the initial sampling to the resampling. Some sites changed up to five times as much as other sites in the mountain range. We discuss the attributes of the plots that changed most and least, and the presence of a newly observed invasive grass in the park, and Eragrostis lehmanniana (Lehman’s love grass) in some of these plots. Implications to park management will also be discussed.
