Comparing wetland sampling methods for floristic quality assessment in Superior, Wisconsin

Abstract

The Wisconsin Floristic Quality Assessment was utilized as a rapid assessment tool in measuring the plant species diversity and species tolerance to anthropogenic disturbance to a subset of wetland communities in Superior, Wisconsin. Data was collected, analyzed, and compared for two sampling techniques: the Whittaker's Plant Diversity Sampling Method (Shmiva 1984) and the Timed Meander Search Method (Goff et al. 1982) with a goal of identifying a method that best characterizes the wetland's floristic quality per wetland community over the amount of time and effort expended.

In recent years, a Florsitic Quality Assessment for Wisconsin (WFQA) wetlands has been adopted. The FQA originated in an attempt to provide a uniform and repeatable method for assessing natural area quality of both uplands and wetlands in the Chicago region (Wilhelm 1977). Following refinement of concepts and methodology (Swink and Wilhelm 1994; Taft et. al. 1997), the use ofFQA rapidly expanded. To date, 10 states (Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North and South Dakota, Indiana, and Mississippi) and one Canadian province (southern Ontario) have adopted the FQA as a wetland assessment method to complement other functional assessment to9ls. ' .

The Wisconsin FQA assessment requires an accurate and complete species inventory of the site based on homogeneity of community type. The method is based on species conservatism. A numeric value from 0-10 has been designated by leading experts for each vascular species in Wisconsin and is called the Coefficient of Conservatism (C of C). These values are averaged into a Mean C and then multiplied against the square root of the total number of native species recorded (BernthaL2003). ·· ·