Rapid assessment of plant diversity patterns: A methodology for landscapes

We present a rapid, cost-efficient methodology to link plant diversity surveys from plots to landscapes using: (1) unbiased site selection based on remotely sensed information; (2) multi-scale field techniques to assess plant diversity; (3) mathematical models (species-area curves) to estimate the number of species in larger areas corrected for within-type heterogeneity; and (4) mathematical techniques to estimate total species richness and patterns of plant diversity in a landscape. We demonstrate the methodology in a 754 ha study area in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, U.S.A., using four 0.025 ha and twenty-one 0.1 ha multi-scale vegetation plots. We recorded 330 plant species (similar to 1/3 the number of plants recorded in the 1074 km(2) Park) in the 2.2 ha area within the plots: this represents a sampling intensity of 0.29% of the 754 ha study site. We estimated 552 plant species, about half the plant species recorded in the Park, in just 0.7% of the Park's area. We show how this rapid, cost-efficient methodology: (1) produces a rich information base on the patterns of native plant diversity and the distribution of non-native plant species and keystone ecosystems; and (2) can be easily adapted for other national and state parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, and nature reserves.