Open AccessAn Ecologic Study of the Habitat Types of Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park, North Dakota
Author(s) -
George R. Hoffman
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
annual report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2693-2407
pISSN - 2693-2385
DOI - 10.13001/uwnpsrc.1978.2083
Subject(s) - habitat , vegetation (pathology) , geography , ecology , shrubland , vegetation type , steppe , national park , vegetation types , grassland , productivity , wildlife , vegetation classification , archaeology , biology , medicine , macroeconomics , pathology , economics
The objectives of this study, begun in May 1978, are to delimit the habitat types of Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park (TRNMP), North Dakota, list the plants present, and assess the animal components of the habitat types. For TRNMP a comprehensive study of the habitat types has not been done previously. The habitat type concept was developed to assess the ecologic status of forest vegetation of the Northern Rockies (Daubenmire 1952, Daubenmire and Daubenmire 1968); and the same concept was later used to assess steppe vegetation of Washington (Daubenmire 1970). The habitat type approach to assessing the ecologic status of vegetation has been used in a number of studies throughout the Rocky Mountain region (Pfister et al. 1977, Reed 1971, 1976, Wirsing and Alexander 1975, Hoffman and Alexander 1976). The basic ecologic nature of the habitat type concept lends itself to studying forest and grassland vegetation as well as interspersed shrublands (Daubenmire 1973). It has been shown that once established for a given region, habitat types provide the framework for establishing relationships between the habitat types and productivity, disease susceptibility, potential for forage production, soil moisture relations, and small mammal distributions (Daubenmire 1973, Hoffman 1960, Layser 1974, Mackee 1970, Rickard 1960). The study at TRNMP will provide data on habitat types and their major animal components and will offer opportunity for future assessment of soil moisture relations, productivity and other characteristics of a basic or applied nature.