Locations with post-Reference vegetation occurring on a single Ecological Site presented here was collected over a 10 year period and in a prescribed manner. The data created the questions: What species are dominant in the vegetation database of today? In which ecological State should the locations be placed? What State or Threshold between States could be described by measuring natural variation at the 19 locations? �To answer these questions an importance rank (Functionality Index) was calculated for all species encountered from the 19 locations. To calculate the Functionality Index, the heaviest, tallest, longest foliar cover and associated constancy of appearance within each protocol was factored by-species with an added value if the species is listed on the Ecological Site Description. The Very Shallow ecological site in Washington revealed a 15% difference of location�s placement in State and Transition Model between the alternative Functional Index and the standard Similarity Index. Ratio of ESD species to total species per location is also a valid consideration to sort location data sets. The weight based Similarity Index was re-calculated for accuracy but no errors in reconstruction were found. An alternative is needed for some databases since Similarity Index is limited by spatial heterogeneity or too few standardized quadrat placements.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.