Biodiversity Variation and Change on a Complex Coastal Plain Landscape: Causes, Connections, Consequences, and Recommendations for Ecosystem Restoration and Conservation
Abstract
The Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP) was a 10-year research and monitoring project designed to support ecosystem-based management on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (MCBCL) in North Carolina, with the overarching objective to maintain MCBCLs natural resources and support the military training mission. This report summarizes DCERPs terrestrial ecosystem research and monitoring efforts to provide a uniform, geographically explicit database for plant species composition and abundance that will serve as the basis for assessing regional and site-specific changes in plant communities. This report also provides MCBCL natural resources managers with a focused set of species and site indicators to facilitate future monitoring to assess important changes in terrestrial ecosystem health. Data about species composition are critical to assessing potential changes in the abundance of species of interest, including threatened and endangered species and invasive, non-native species. Monitoring of plant communities is key to understanding possible local and landscape-level changes in habitat for species, such as the federally listed red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW; Picoidesborealis).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 02, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1057681
Entities
People
- Norman Christensen
- Patricia A. Cunningham
Organizations
- Duke University