OOS 51-5
EREN's Permanent Forest Plot Project: Utilizing a network of faculty and undergraduates to investigate forest dynamics and long-term data management best practices
The Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) Permanent Forest Plot Project (PFPP) has been developed within the EREN collaborative research model of generating high-quality, publishable ecological data with undergraduate students and faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions. The specific goals of PFPP are to develop protocols for the installation and multi-year monitoring of 20 x 20 m permanent forest plots across multiple landscapes and regions, and to generate long term tree and forest site datasets stored in a searchable, online database available for teaching and/or research. Some of the key ecological questions that can be addressed with these data include 1) biomass/carbon storage potential in forests of different ages, types, or levels of disturbance (e.g.interior vs edge; presence vs absence of invasive species), 2) annual rates of woody biomass and carbon accumulation in relation to temperature, precipitation, nutrient levels, or other environmental variables, and 3) diversity, density, size class frequency, phenology, soil chemistry, soil macroinvertebrate, and understory plant comparisons across landscapes and regions. For this approach to be successful 1) the protocols must work within the constraints of scientists with significant teaching responsibilities, and 2) quality assurance/quality control techniques must be established to ensure that the data collected and reported by undergraduates is of the highest quality.
The protocols were developed and tested over multiple sites for two years before the database, specifically designed for PFPP, went online in 2012. Data management practices include incorporating site and plot specific metadata into the archived database.
As of Feb 2014, there are 130 registered users (30% students) from 48 institutions. The database contains 92 different plots, representing 21 sites. Tree data have been uploaded for 86 plots, and multiple year measurements are available for 12. Additional data have been collected, but not uploaded, due to faculty concerns about data quality.
A test of measurement precision conducted at two EREN institutions revealed that absolute mean differences in repeated dbh measurements made by student researchers ranged from 0.18 to 0.26 cm. Even with this variability, however, PFPP data have been used successfully to compare carbon sequestration in restored and mature maple-basswood forests in Minnesota, with the restored site showing a threefold increase in carbon sequestration over that of the mature forest. Data quality remains a PFPP priority, and we are continuing to develop QA/QC procedures, which are posted on the EREN PFPP curriculum webpage.