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<br />001748 <br /> <br />25 <br /> <br />sustained monitoring. Funding limitations in FY06 do not permit continuation of this ground- <br />based monitoring. <br />A vegetation basemap initiated in FY2003, to be completed in FY2005, serves as a <br />template for past and future large-scale change detection for core monitoring, as well as for <br />randomized selection of monitoring sites for vertebrates including bird patches. A system-wide <br />mission to acquire a digital dataset, similar to 2002 ISTAR, will be acquired in 2005. This <br />dataset will permit landscape scale change detection for vegetation that is proposed as part of <br />core monitoring. Questions that could be addressed in this avenue of study include camping <br />beach encroachment, status of old high water zone riparian area change, and general riparian <br />vegetation productivity changes at a very gross scale when used in combination with LiDAR and <br />ground truth efforts for canopy heights. These questions and analysis do not address smaller <br />scale species abundance and distribution questions, however. <br />Riparian breeding birds monitoring, excluding southwest willow flycatcher, will be <br />temporarily suspended in 2006 due to funding limitations. Surveys over the period of 200 1- <br />2003 suggest that bird abundances shift between Old and New High Water Zones depending on <br />resource availability. Bird abundance and density, which included migrants and permanent <br />winter and summer residents, was greater in the New High Water Zone (t=3.4, p=O.OOI) (Yard <br />and Blake, 2002). Species richness was also higher in the New High Water Zone. This was in <br />contrast to 2001 where species abundance was greater in the Old High Water Zone. The shift in <br />bird abundance between Old and New High Water Zones may be associated with lower <br />abundance and diversity of arthropods or seeds from annual grasses and herbs in the Old High <br />Water Zone related to the drought conditions. Decreases in annual grasses and herbaceous plants <br />was recorded in the 35k-60k cfs vegetation transect plots that incorporate stage discharge level <br />(Kearsley et al 2003), which was part of this integrated monitoring project, These data provide <br />correlational support for density shifts observed among riparian birds between years. Synthesis <br />of invertebrate data will take place in 2004-05 and it is anticipated that trophic level interactions <br />will be more developed by 2006. <br /> <br />GCMRC FY2006 Annual Work Plan (Draft February 15,2005) <br />