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| February 7th 2012
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Guidelines For Doing Field SurveysThis guide lists the detailed steps involved in sampling invasive species. You may wish to review our guidelines for selecting a site, what to buy, our checklist, and our setup tips before going through these steps. We recommend four different protocols for sampling invasive plants, including: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 protocols; see our protocols for a quick reference. Table of Contents
Levels
Levels (top)We offer a tiered monitoring approach:
Why plots? (top)
Where should I locate my plots? (top)
Level 1 (top)This level of monitoring may be appropriate for teachers, students, and citizen science groups hoping to raise awareness of invasive species issues, while providing valuable distribution data on a subset of easily recognized invasive plant species. At the same time, they will be collecting some basic data on some select species of interest within a region. Species that are high profile, easily identifiable, and are well established in the area should be included in the list to maintain interest of the participants although rare non-native species (“watch lists”) may be included in the training. Including more abundant species will increase search quality by reducing the likelihood of a participant becoming uninterested due to possibly never finding the species they have been trained to find. Data collection will follow the minimum requirements set by the NAWMA data collection standards with slight modifications to account for absence data (see Appendix 1). Target species will be selected by local resource managers and citizen scientists to meet local needs. Sampling design Commonly, an “opportunistic” sampling sampling design is used, where students and citizen scientists are directed to convenient, subjectively selected sites to collect data. Safety is always our primary consideration. Still, data collected form many surveys of this type can be extremely useful in mapping invasive species, planning control efforts, and identifying socially important sites for restoration. Goals
Indicators
Necessary Field Equipment and Training
Measures
Primary Data Uses
Level 2 (top)This level of monitoring may be appropriate for teachers, students, and citizen science groups hoping to raise awareness of invasive species issues, while providing valuable distribution data on a subset of easily recognized invasive plant species. High profile, easily identifiable, and well-established species in the area should be included in the list to maintain interest of the participants, although rare non-native species (“watch lists’) may be included in the training. Including common invaders will also increase awareness and foster interest in future early detection efforts. Data collection for Level 1 improves on the minimum requirements set by the North American Weed Mapping Association (NAWMA) data collection standards by augmenting polygon data (patch of weeds) with fixed-area plots (See Appendix 2). These plots can account for species absence, integrate data with remote sensing information, and allow for long-term monitoring in a consistent, comparable data set. Additionally, some fields from NAWMA that can easily be determined from other recorded fields (e.g., county from plot location coordinates) have been removed to shorten the amount of information that must be recorded. Target species will be selected by local resource managers and citizen scientists to meet local needs. Sampling design Commonly, an “opportunistic” sampling design is used, where students and citizen scientists are directed to convenient, subjectively selected sites to collect data. Safety is always a primary consideration, too. Still, data collected from many surveys of this type can be extremely useful in mapping invasive species, planning control efforts, and identifying socially important sites for restoration. Goals The goals of Level 1 surveys and monitoring are: (1) education; (2) increasing public awareness of invasive plant species issues and ecology; (3) and gathering high quality data on targeted invasive species’ distributions at a relatively low cost and over large areas. Indicators
Necessary Field Equipment and Training
Measures Core data for a 168 m2 plot
Recording Invasive species absence (options) Educate that “knowing were a species hasn’t yet invaded” is important information for scientists to determine barriers and corridors of invasion
Primary Data Uses
Proposed Level 1 Activity (Grades K-6) A searchable area is defined (e.g., city park). Following trainings of Lessons 1 (Introduction to Invasives), 2 (Safety in the Field), and 3 (Introduction to GPS), the group is told to search for the species of interest within the selected area. Flags representing each species (e.g., colored flags or flags with species name written on them) will be given to each student. They will be told to select center points for 7.3 m plots and then if a species being searched for is located within the plot, to place the appropriate flag next to the species. At the same time, the trained instructor will map the area being searched. Following a specified search time (~30 min – 1 hr), the students will reconvene and then walk through the searched area with a trained instructor/botanist to look at their results. For each flag, the instructor will let the students know if the species was identified correctly or incorrectly, and if the flag was actually in a plot. False positives and false negatives will be recorded by the instructor for data quality analyses. For all species correctly identified, the instructor will demonstrate how to map the species with a GPS– either with a point location or a polygon around the infestation if it is of greater size than the accuracy of the GPS unit in the specified area. Prizes can be awarded to the individual with the most correct species identifications by an individual. Level 3 (top)Level 3 monitoring will include all aspects of Level 2 monitoring with the addition of fixed-area plots with auxiliary data recorded about the habitat of the species of interest (see Appendix 2). The addition of standard 7.3 m diameter plots assures comparable data across the country. Data at this level can be collected by trained citizen scientists, but they should have had some experience with the Level 2 protocol prior to their participation in Level 3. The number of species individuals have been trained to identify will increase from those chosen for Level 2. Rare non-native species that could potentially be found in the area should be given more focus. Early detection monitoring can be directed more effectively using Level 2 data. Surveys should ensure that the ecological variation of the project area is covered, with greater attention to sampling design (not opportunistic) including the intensity of sampling (number of plots) and the pattern of sampling (see below). Sampling design Typically, a stratified-random sampling design is used based on coarse vegetation types (e.g., forest, grassland, riparian zone, road-side). The design also should capture rare/important vegetation-types, and extremes in environmental gradients such as low to high elevations in an area, wet to dry sites, open-canopy to close-canopy sites, roads and streams to upland sites, and disturbed to undisturbed sites (e.g., burned and unburned sites, roadsides to adjacent sites). The number of samples in strata (or vegetation type) needed is determined by initial findings. If there are rarely or never target weeds in closed canopy forests, there is little need to keep adding additional plots. If there is high variability is some strata (e.g., riparian zones, burned areas), additional plots will be needed in these locations. Goals The goals of Level 3 surveys and monitoring are: (1) education; (2) increased public awareness of invasive plant species issues and ecology; (3) gathering high quality data on invasive species distributions at a relatively moderate cost and over large areas; (4) begin understanding the habitat requirements for successful invaders; and (5) unbiased (or reduced-bias) datasets for mapping and modeling invasive species for strategic control and restoration activities. Indicators
Measures (In addition to Level 2)
Primary Data Uses
Level 4 (top)Coming soon. References (top)Barnett, D. T., T. J. Stohlgren, C. S. Jarnevich, G. W. Chong, J. A. Ericson, T. R. Davern, and S. A. Simonson. 2007. The art and science of weed mapping. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-006-9530-0. |
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