Summary

Description

The U.S. Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) has produced a vegetation spatial database coverage (vegetation map) for the Effigy Mounds National Monument (EFMO) Vegetation Mapping Project, USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program (VMP). The vegetation map shows the locations of plant communities (associations) at EFMO and immediate surroundings. To develop the plant community classification, vegetation samples were collected and analyzed, identifying 15 plant communities of the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS). (2 more plant communities, however, were identified using accuracy assessment field data, making 17 total plant communities for the EFMO vegetation mapping project.) Ecologists and botanists from UMESC, under the direction of NatureServe, collected 63 vegetation plot samples, 55 collected in 2001 and 8 more in 2002. The UMESC and NatureServe performed ordination analysis to the sampling data. Plant communities of EFMO are defined and described at the local and global scale. (Local descriptions were written for only those 15 associations supported with plot data.) The UMESC has generated a spatial database showing the locations of all 63 vegetation plot samples. Selected field data items extracted from the project's PLOTS database are also included.