U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Open-File Report 03-336

Perennial Vegetation Data From Permanent Plots
on The Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada

By Robert H. Webb, Marilyn B. Murov, Todd C. Esque, Diane E. Boyer, Lesley
A. DeFalco, Dustin F. Haines, Dominic Oldershaw, Sara J. Scoles, Kathryn A.
Thomas, Joan B. Blainey, and Philip A. Medica

ABSTRACT

Perennial vegetation data from 68 permanent plots on the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada, are given for the period of 1963 through 2002. Dr. Janice C. Beatley established the plots in 1962 and then remeasured them periodically from 1963 through 1975. We remeasured 67 of these plots between 2000 and 2003; the remaining plot was destroyed at some time between 1975 and 1993. The plots ranged from 935 to 2,274 m in elevation and are representative of common plant associations of the Mojave Desert, the transition to Great Basin Desert, and pinyon-juniper woodlands. The purpose of this report is to describe the complete set of ecological data that Beatley collected from the Nevada Test Site from 1963 through 1975 and to present the data for perennial vegetation collected from 2000 through 2003.

CONTENTS

Purpose And Scope
Acknowledgments
Notes on Units and Species Nomenclature

The Study Design and History of the Plots
Geometry of the Plots
Photography of the Plots
Environmental Data
Radiation Dosages
Annual Plants
Perennial Vegetation
Rodents

Climatically Driven Changes
Disturbance Recovery
Benefits of Long-Term Monitoring

Explanation for Appendix Tables

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