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Testing Natureserve's ecological integrity assessment model in Michigan and Indiana
Citation:
Faber-Langendoen, D., C. Hedge, M. Kost, AND A. Trebitz. Testing Natureserve's ecological integrity assessment model in Michigan and Indiana. US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, 10-11, (2013).
Impact/Purpose:
not applicable
Description:
NatureServe, in partnership with member programs from the Natural Heritage Network and federal agencies, has developed an assessment of ecosystems condition, structured around the concept of ecological integrity. Our multi-metric approach for our Ecological Integrity Assessment method is similar to the Index of Biotic Integrity for aquatic systems. We defined metrics as values derived from specific measures (e.g., basal area, stand structural class, species diversity) that inform us about the status of an ecological factor or attribute of integrity. For our model, the primary rank factors and Major Ecological Factors were landscape context (landscape, buffer), size and condition (vegetation, soils and hydrology). We then selected key metrics that are most responsive, practi-cal, cost-effective and well-tested in measuring the condition of the ecosystem. The EIA method also is applicable to a wide range of wetland ecosystem types. Here we emphasize Level 2 Rapid Assessments which incorporate relatively simple field metrics for collecting data on specific wetland sites. Our primary objective was to test the effectiveness of the ecological integrity assessment method on a candidate set of wetland sites and revise the method accordingly.