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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #398991
Research Project: Science and Technologies for the Sustainable Management of Western Rangeland Systems

Location: Range Management Research

Title: Understanding variation in ecological site identification: Examining information accessibility and sensitivity in soil observations in the Western USA

Author
item MARTINEZ, PEDRO - New Mexico State University
item NAFUS, ALETA - Bureau Of Land Management
item LAURENCE-TRAYNOR, ALEX - Bureau Of Land Management
item McCord, Sarah

Submitted to: Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/12/2023
Publication Date: 2/16/2023
Citation: Martinez, P., Nafus, A., Laurence-Traynor, A., McCord, S.E. 2023. Understanding variation in ecological site identification: Examining information accessibility and sensitivity in soil observations in the Western USA. Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts. Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Ecological site information is used to inform adaptive rangeland management strategies. The identification of ecological sites is based on soil properties (soil texture class, clay content, soil profile depth, etc.), landscape characteristics (elevation, slope aspect, landform, etc.), and plant communities which are critical co-variates in monitoring programs such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program. However, the extent to which ecological site information is available to AIM data collectors and the sensitivity of ecological site identification to the variability of soil observations remains undefined. To assist AIM data collectors in identifying an ecological site at monitoring plots, we evaluate both the level of availability of ecological site resources at local and national (Landscape Monitoring Framework – LMF) AIM monitoring plots and the variability of soil observations of collected data. We found that 31,854 monitoring plots (80% of all plots) contain ecological site identification. Of those plots, 24,546 plot locations (79% of plots with ascribed ecological sites) match the Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) in which the ecological site concepts were originally developed. Data of 92,432 soil horizons from 29,072 plots were retrieved from terrestrial AIM databases. Soil texture classes are indicated in 90,814 soil horizons (98% of total soil horizons), whereas clay content is defined for 49,542 soil horizons (46% of total soil horizons). Leveraging this soil dataset, we present a summary of soil texture class, clay content, and soil pit depth in 14 states of the Western USA. We will use this analysis to identify opportunities for improving the access of ecological site information to monitoring crews and enhancing soil observation training to improve ecological site identification.