Laserfiche WebLink
e <br />ESPEY, HUSTON 6 ASSOCIATES, IHC. <br />hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa), longstem spikerush (Eleochazis macrostachya), <br />pullup muhly (Muhlenber>;ia filiformis) and timothy (Phleum protease). <br />The forb cover is dominated by Pacific aster (Aster chilensis) (9.5 <br />percent), yarrow (Achilles lanulosa) (4.0 percent) and yellow thistle (Cirsium <br />ochnocentrum) (2.7 percent) in more disturbed azeas. In less disturbed azeas forbe <br />occur as imderstory species. These aze: northwest cinquefoil (Potentilla gracilis) <br />(5.1 percent) and Newmexican chechemallow (Sidalcea neomexicana) (0.5 percent). <br />Other forbs in this community aze: Canada thistle (Cirsium azvense), curlycup <br />gumweed (Grindelia squazrosa) and field mint (Mentha azvense). <br />Productivity <br />The estimated Annual Net Productivity (ANP) of clipped plots within the <br />meadow community ranges from 170.1 grams per square meter to 457.3 grams per <br />squaze meter with an average of 299.9 grams per squaze meter or 2709 pounds per <br />• acre per yeaz. Graminoids are by faz the major producers of biomass (252.7 grams <br />per square meter, 84 percent of the total). Dominant gramiaoids are: bluegrass <br />(Pon agassizensis), Nebraska sedge, fieldclustered sedge, and baltic rush. Forbs <br />produced 47.2 grams per squaze meter. This community produces 1.5 AUM's per <br />acre for cattle (see Table K-3). <br />SpeciesSpecies Diversity <br />The species density index refers to richness in species or species density <br />between communities in a sample azea (Wlssttaker, 1975). The equitability index <br />refers to the relative similarity of cover values or the evenness of cover distribution <br />among the species found in a community. <br />Species diversity is lowest in this community relative to the big <br />sagebrush and mountain shrub affected communities. Forty-two species were <br />encountered on thirty transects. This produces a diversity index of Z8.4. <br />• Equitability, or the evenness of cover distribution among species, is also the lowest <br />K-16 <br />