{"id":3787,"date":"2009-07-16T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/vegetation-mapping-and-collection-at-great-sand-dunes\/"},"modified":"2021-06-09T14:58:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:58:20","slug":"vegetation-mapping-and-collection-at-great-sand-dunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/2009\/07\/16\/vegetation-mapping-and-collection-at-great-sand-dunes\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegetation mapping and collection at Great Sand Dunes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7181\" src=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/GRSA.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"Great Sand Dunes\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/GRSA.jpg 400w, https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/GRSA-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><span style=\"font-size:78%\">A view of the dunes from above<br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Field crews headed by CNHP Ecologist Joe Stevens have been working since 2005 at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/grsa\/index.htm\">Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve<\/a> to classify and map the diverse vegetation of the Park as well as to collect and identify all known plant species within the Park.<\/p>\n<p>The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve showcases a wide range of ecosystems on a steep elevational gradient, going from dunes, shrublands, lakes and wetlands on the valley floor (7,550 feet elevation) through montane and subalpine forest, to alpine tundra at over 13,000 feet in the space of just three or four miles.  The project area boundary encompasses 413,000 acres.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7182\" src=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/zcover5.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/zcover5.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/zcover5-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><span style=\"font-size:78%\">There&#8217;s more to the Great Sand Dunes than just sand!<br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<p>The vegetation mapping project is in collaboration with the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Service, NatureServe, and The Nature Conservancy.  The project is wrapping up this summer and will result in a detailed map of the area\u2019s vegetation, descriptions of all the classified types, and a field key to the vegetation, representing approximately 200 different plant associations.<\/p>\n<p>For the plant species collection project, CNHP assisted the Great Sand Dunes staff to identify vascular plant species within the Park, and to collect over 700 voucher specimens for the Park herbarium.  A state-rare sedge, slender sedge (<span style=\"font-style: italic\">Carex lasiocarpa<\/span>, G5S1) was documented, as well as western bitterweed (<span style=\"font-style: italic\">Rydbergia<\/span> (<span style=\"font-style: italic\">Tetraneuris<\/span>) <span style=\"font-style: italic\">brandegeei<\/span>), a regional endemic found only in the Sangre DeCristo mountains in Colorado.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7183\" src=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/A_ceramicus.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" alt=\"Astragalus ceramicus\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/A_ceramicus.jpg 240w, https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/A_ceramicus-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><span style=\"font-size:78%\">The unusual <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Astragalus ceramicus<\/span> (pottery milkvetch), found at the Great Sand Dunes<\/span>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A view of the dunes from above Field crews headed by CNHP Ecologist Joe Stevens have been working [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-collaborations","category-ecology","category-national-parks","entry","override"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}