GLORIA Alpine Plant Monitoring in the White Mountains

In collaboration with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and the California Native Plant Society, the University of California White Mountain Research Station established new GLORIA monitoring sites on three summits in the White Mountains of Eastern California in summer 2005. The GLORIA protocol has now been implemented on seven summits in the White Mountains in the past two summers. The GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments: www.gloria.ac.at/) project is a worldwide initiative for long-term monitoring of climate effects on alpine peaks. This year the protocol was used on summits composed primarily of carbonate (limestone and dolomite) rocks, which ranged from 3478 m to 3735 m in elevation. These suumits contrast with those sampled last year which were composed of granitic and metavolcanic rock. For each summit we followed the GLORIA sampling design and recorded plant species composition, cover, and frequency. We installed dataloggers to measure soil temperature, and researchers from the University of California Merced took soil samples for analysis of soil composition and micro-biota. We had multiple botanists make cover estimates of the same Summit Area Section to assess repeatability of such estimates and we expanded the protocol to include delineation of fixed area (10 m x 10 m) plots within the standard GLORIA Summit Area Sections. Cover and species composition were measured in the fixed area plots as well as in the full Summit Area Sections. This addition to the protocol greatly facilitated calibration of ocular cover estimates for the irregularly-shaped sometimes-very-large Summit Area Sections and will also facilitate comparisons of data among different sites if it is implemented elsewhere. A butterfly census was conducted for the first time in conjunction with sampling. Next year we hope to expand monitoring to gather data on small mammals and focus on sampling at (current) upper elevation limits of selected taxa.