A PROPOSED DESIGN 
FOR MONITORING CHANGES 
IN VEGETATION HEALTH AND VIGOR 
IN ALASKA 
Vernon J. LaBau 
Project Leader 
Anchorage Forestry Sciences Laboratory 
201 East 9th Avenue, Suite 303 
Anchorage, Alaska 99501 
ABSTRACT 
There is evidence that much of the Alaska flora are sensitive to the impact of global climate change. 
This paper proposes a methodology for monitoring the health and vigor of Alaska vegetation to seek 
evidence of global climate changes. The monitoring concept, based, in part, on a system developed for 
assessing vegetation biomass and plant composition, would be applied in the boreal and temperate forests 
of interior and coastal Alaska. To capture vegetation change in these sensitive forests, it is 
important that a monitoring system be established in Alaska soon. 
BACKGROUND 
During the past decade, the scientific, social 
and political arenas have become increasingly 
concerned about the worldwide health of forests. 
But only recently have acid rain, stratospheric 
ozone depletion and atmospheric carbon loading 
become targets of significant public attention 
and scientific study (Office of the President, 
1989). As concern grew, more scientists began 
examining reductions in forest area and changes 
in forest health for evidence of global climate 
change. 
The scientific community is particularly 
interested in establishing programs for 
monitoring the health and vigor of vegetation. 
Generally these programs are envisioned as 
observation and measurement of vegetation changes 
in systematically located sites. The sites would 
be visited initially to determine the current 
health and vigor of the vegetation. Then, 
periodic visits would be made to determine any 
changes in health and vigor. 
The studies would be designed to establish a 
significant relationship between observed changes 
and whatever was causing the changes. If the 
changes are related to climatic shifts or some 
form of atmospheric change, then, hopefully, 
statistical analysis will correlate plant changes 
to global climate shifts. For example, it is 
hoped that statistical relationships may be shown 
through evaluation of chemical analyses of 
vegetation and soils and climatic or atmospheric 
changes. 
Arctic vegetation is expected to react early to 
global climate change because harsh growing 
condition cause many "indicator plants" to exist 
in a naturally stressed condition. If stress is 
reduced, for example, by climate warming, the 
plants should show increased growth. If some 
other condition becomes a factor, such as acid 
rain, those stressed indicator plants may 
disappear from the ecosystem. For this reason, 
it's important that a monitoring program be 
established soon in Alaska. 
However, global climate change may not be the 
only factor affecting vegetation change. 
Therefore, studies must be designed to capture 
other possible relationships as effectively as 
possible, given limitations of money, personnel 
and time. 
Our monitoring design interfaces with the Global 
Change Research Program (GCRP) of the Pacific 
Northwest and the Pacific Southwest Forest and 
Range Experiment Stations (USDA, 1990). The GCRP 
emphasizes better understanding and management of 
interactions between climate change, air 
chemistry and ecosystems processes and 
productivity in four ecosystems chosen for study. 
GCRP integrates process and small-scale response 
research with watershed- and landscape- level 
studies. 
Our monitoring design also is directly connected 
with work being done by the Atmospheric 
Deposition/Vegetation Survey Research Development 
and Application Program of the US Forest Service 
in Triangle Park, NC (Barnard, 1990). 
A sound time-series plant monitoring program must 
begin with baseline information on health and 
vigor. Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) 
Research Work Units of the US Forest Service have 
a nationwide set of baseline data and information 
on forest and rangelands that appears to apply to 
such a study. 
Since enactment of the McSweeney-McNary Act of 
1928, Forest research (formerly called Forest 
Survey) teams in the United States have 
characterized forest vegetation at sample plot 
locations and extrapolated this information to 
the larger population. Initially, this was done 
primarily for the purpose of estimating timber 
areas, volume, growth and mortality. 
Passage of the Resources Planning Act (RPA) in 
1974 by the US Congress empowered Forest 
Inventory and Analysis (FIA) research units to 
evaluate all vegetation on forest and rangelands. 
Since then, many FIA units have developed 
methodologies for evaluating all vegetation 
within sample areas.