Transferability of Regional and Wetland Specific Assessment Methods for a Statewide Approach

The transferability and expansion of current wetland assessment methods to other wetland classes and ecoregions throughout the state of North Dakota is the primary goal of this research. During the growing season of 2011, 53 wetlands ranging from lacustrine depressional, palustrine depressional and forested class wetlands were sampled. Additionally, 40 ecoregion specific "reference" wetlands sampled during the growing seasons of 2009 and 2010 were also considered. Vegetation, soil, hydrologic, and landscape attributes were collected based on the protocols for the Index of Plant Community Integrity, Hydrogeomorphic Model, and the North Dakota Rapid Assessment Method. Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling was used to validate each assessment's ranking criteria amongst different wetlands in different ecoregions. A test of concordance the three assessment methods was conducted with Kendall's W program. Validation results indicated that the Index of Plant Community Integrity and North Dakota Rapid Assessment Method can have state wide applicability; however, protocols should be adjusted to regional ecological processes. Concordance was not found amongst the assessments when using the ecoregion reference dataset