Deutschman Lab Projects
Broadly speaking, it has been easier to measure progress toward conserving individual species than conserving more abstract ideals like ecosystem function. Specific objectives focused on conserving ecosystem function must clearly defined, measurable, and achievable under reasonable cost and time constraints.
This project focuses on defining and measuring aspects of ecosystem function in two important vegetation communities, coastal sage scrub and chaparral. Over the last five years we have developed and evaluated the accuracy and associated cost of different sampling designs and field protocols. We have also estimated spatial and temporal variability in both vegetation communities in order to evaluate the power of our design to detect change. In 2011, we began collaborating with Dr. Doug Stow (Department of Geography, SDSU) to include state-of-the-art remote sensing methods for monitoring structural and functional aspects of coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats. Our aim is to develop a set of complementary protocols which are accurate and cost-effective across multiple scales. We will achieve this by cross-referencing our established field techniques with the novel remote sensing techniques. Further, these techniques will be compared to the concurrent effort to update the vegetation map for San Diego.
Over the last five years we have refined our understanding of the relative utility of several response designs or protocols for collecting fine-scale data on the composition of vegetation communities. We have also broadened the scope of our vegetation monitoring and have compiled a comprehensive baseline dataset. The integration of remote sensing data with our field methods means that much of our effort will emphasize data analysis and cross-scale comparisons.
Research Tasks
1. Collect plot-level vegetation composition and structure data
2. Compare plot-level vegetation data to remotely-sensed data
3. Assemble a "Vegetation Monitoring Methods" Working Group (VMMWG)
Lead Biologist: Douglas Deutschman, Spring Strahm
Evaluation and Refinement of Vegetation Monitoring Methods
for the San Diego MSCP
