Location: Range Management Research
Project Number: 3050-21600-001-023-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Sep 25, 2021
End Date: Sep 24, 2026
Objective:
Goal of the project is conduct collaborative research on the use of distributed monitoring data coupled to spatial/remote sensing data and process models to detect, predict, and mitigate adverse ecological state change in Western U.S. rangeland environments.
Objective 1: Conduct research into developing and updating ecological site concepts based on existing BLM monitoring data, available soil maps, and literature review.
Objective 2: Develop an approach for building quantitative keys for ecological sites and states based on ESDs and existing monitoring data.
Objective 3: Develop an approach for building narrative keys for ecological sites based on ESDs and existing monitoring data.
Objective 4: Coordinate amongst organizations to facilitate collaborative research on ecological site concepts and ESD development.
Approach:
1. Conduct research into developing and updating ecological site concepts using existing monitoring data, available soil data, and literature review. This may include updating ESD narrative sections, tables, and state-and-transition models. Updates will be based on analysis and summary of quantitative data including those collected by the BLM’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program.
2. Develop an approach for building quantitative keys for ecological sites and states that can be used to classify existing monitoring data to ecological sites and states. Diagnostic features from ESDs will be determined and organized such that existing monitoring data can be assigned to a probable ecological site based on soil, physiographic, and climatic features, and to a probable ecological state based on plant community functional and structural features.
3. Develop an approach for building narrative keys for ecological sites that can be used in the field by land managers and monitoring crews to identify ecological sites. Diagnostic features from ESDs will be determined and organized such that a resource specialist or field technician can identify probable ecological site based on soil pit and site observations.
4. Coordinate amongst Agencies to facilitate collaborative research on ESD concept development, and to further ongoing strategies for interagency collaboration on the development of soil maps, ESDs, and ESD-related tools.
5. USDA will provide computing resources, office space, vehicles for field work, and scientist time to oversee progression of the project.
