NEON Alliance and association vegetation maps for Domain 10 CPER, 2010

During initial field visits the variability of vegetation with regard to landform, especially geology and geomorphology, was noted. Therefore, soils mapping data from the Weld County Soil Survey, Northern Part (NRCS 1982) was used as a starting point for distribution of points at which quantitative sampling would document plant species composition and abundance. Initial point distribution proceeded with approximately ten in each of the larger soil units and five in each of the smaller. At each sample site, at 1-meter intervals along a 50-meter transect, point-intercept data were collected 50 cm to the left and 50 cm to the right of the transect for a maximum of 100 possible point intercept hits per transect. Interceptions were tallied by species. This quantitative vegetation data from the field, stratified by soil mapping unit, allowed for vegetation mapping based on soil mapping units.