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    • Upland Vegetation and Soils Monitoring for the Northern Colorado Plateau Network: 2009-2023 - Data Package

    Metadata Updated: November 25, 2025

    Uplands are land areas lying above the elevation where flooding generally occurs—areas found beyond riparian zones. Uplands represent the vast majority of land area in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN), and include rock outcrops, badlands, shrublands, grasslands, woodlands, and forests. Upland vegetation provides energy to other trophic levels, habitat structure for various organisms, and is a significant component of species diversity. The ability of uplands to retain soil and nutrients, absorb and release water, and buffer high-runoff precipitation events is a major influence on riparian condition. Upland ecosystems are easily disturbed and slow to recover, yet several NCPN units contain relatively undisturbed examples of grasslands and shrublands. Historic land uses include livestock and timber production. More recently, recreational use has increased. To effectively manage uplands, the National Park Service needs to know the impacts of these uses. Uplands monitoring includes measuring soil stability, hydrologic function, biological soil crusts, and plant community characteristics. The NCPN uses a rotating panel survey design to select randomized sampling plots that are visited every 1–2 years, followed by a relatively long interval between revisits (3–6 years). This design minimizes the chances that sensitive, arid-ecosystem plots will be damaged by repeated visits in successive years and is a cost-effective way to estimate the health of upland ecosystems across a large area. While the sampling has largely followed the survey design, there have been minor deviations due to budget fluctuations, weather, and Covid, resulting in fewer plots being sampled than intended in some years. NCPN uplands monitoring is intended to strike a balance between increasing fundamental understanding of these systems and providing managers with early warning of undesirable change. The NCPN monitors upland vegetation and soils at 10 units: Arches National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Dinosaur National Monument, Timpanogos Cave National Monument, and Zion National Park.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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    Dates

    Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date November 25, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from DOI NPS DCAT-US

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date November 25, 2025
    Publisher National Park Service
    Maintainer
    Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/nps-datastore-2305079
    Data First Published 2024-11-15T00:00:00Z
    Data Last Modified 2024-11-15T00:00:00Z
    Category Data Package
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 010:24
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/nps-data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 86a87bdf-eb45-4a27-95ea-59d324a828e3
    Harvest Source Id d917c1a9-26b7-43ea-b8c5-c77ec750a850
    Harvest Source Title DOI NPS DCAT-US
    Homepage URL https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2305079
    Program Code 010:119, 010:118
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash e640cd04bf0c65dc1e3106794fa9cb22940552e44e1ac7875df616ad67918e86
    Source Schema Version 1.1

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