SMES Vegetation Line Intercept Data

This is data for perennial plant vegetation canopy cover measured
from all SMES study plots, fall 1995. The purpose of this data is
to provide ground-truth data for comparison with low-level aerial
photographs of each study plot. Three, 29 meter lines were measured
along three of six rows of the permanent vegetation measurement
quadrats. Each line was measured at 10cm resolution for intercepts
of perennial plant live canopy cover, and for bare ground. 10cm
resolution is comparable to the resolution of the aerial photos.
All plants were identified to the species level. These
line-intercept measurements are taken once every ten years, at the
same time that low-level aerial photographs are taken. These data
will be compared to both decadal air photos, and annual measures of
vegetation from one-meter2 quadrats on each plot to provide
information on vegetation change over time relative to the various
animal exclosure treatments.