The activity of the FGDC Subcommittee partners has recently been focused on classifying the natural vegetation types are all levels of the hierarchy. In February 2016 USNVC 2.0 will be launched including type descriptions for the Conterminous U.S. The focus will then shift to finalizing types down to the group level for Alaska, and Hawai’i and to implementing the formal peer review process to accommodate proposed revisions. In 2014 a pilot project was conducted to test and formalize the peer review process. That project resulted in the first article for the Proceedings of the USNVC – Palmquist, K. A., R. K. Peet, and S. C. Carr. Xeric Longleaf Pine Vegetation of the Atlantic and East Gulf Coast Coastal Plain: an Evaluation and Revision of Associations within the U.S. National Vegetation Classification. A website and database are currently being designed to make the Proceedings available through the Ecological Society of America’s website.
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The following projects and tasks are currently underway for the Standard:
Regional Analyses
- Regional-scale Analysis of Vegetation Types of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert. University of New Mexico.
- Boreal and Arctic Alaska Regional Analysis. University of Alaska Anchorage.
- Analysis, Revision and Documentation of the Longleaf Pine Associations of the National Vegetation Classification (Group 007) Occurring in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.
Plot Harvest Projects
- Plot Harvest for the Great Valley Section, Southern California Coast, and Southern California Mountains and Valleys. California Native Plant Society
- Plot Harvest in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program. NatureServe.
- Assembly, Standardization, Evaluation, and Dissemination of a Critical Mass of Vegetation Plots from the Carolinas, Virginias, and Adjacent Regions. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.