Abstract Detail

Floristics & Taxonomy

A Vascular Flora of the Manter and Salmon Creek Watersheds in the Southern Sierra Nevada, Tulare County, California.

The Manter and Salmon Creek watersheds occur in the southern Sierra Nevada, Tulare County, CA, and encompass a 51 sq. mi. section of the Kern Platea. This region is known to host numerous endemic plant species (e.g. Frasera tubulosa and Horkeliella purpurascens) and species of conservation concern (e.g. Eriogonum breedlovei var. shevockii and Carlquistia muirii). The Domeland Wilderness, which makes up 25 sq. mi. of the study site, has few herbarium specimen records documenting plant diversity. Conducting a systematic floristic inventory of this under-documented region provides an opportunity to record rare plant locations, new county records, species at the edge of their range, and disjunct plant populations. Documenting this diversity is vital, as there are several ongoing impacts from land use and climate change. Cattle grazing, off-highway vehicular use, logging, severe drought, and an altered fire regime were all documented during the study. These disturbances will have lasting impacts on the flora.
Throughout the project, I completed a total of 24 field trips, totaling 90 field days, and resulting in the collection of 1,412 herbarium specimen records. The primary goal of this project was to produce an annotated checklist of the regional flora. With field work, plant identification, and analyses for this project complete, I will be presenting an overview of the study area and will place this into a conservation context.

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Keywords:
Field Botany
Floristics
Sierra Nevada
grazing
disturbance
wildfire
logging
climate change
montane
flora
herbaria
California
Tulare County
mediterranean.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Number: F&T I002
Abstract ID:99
Candidate for Awards:None