Vegetation and soil recovery in wilderness campsites closed to visitor use
Environmental Management
Links
- More information: Publisher Index Page (via DOI)
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
Recreational use of wilderness results in impacts to vegetation and soil in trails and campsites. Traditionally, campsite impact studies have compared campsites receiving various levels of use with unused control areas. Field studies in Sequoia National Park, California, indicate that the degree of impact to vegetation and soils also varies within campsites. The central areas of campsites, where trampling is concentrated, show lower plant species diversity, differences in relative species cover, more highly compacted soils, and lower soil nutrient concentrations than do peripheral, moderately trampled, and untrampled areas within the same campsite. Three years after closure to visitor use, the central areas show less increase in mean foliar plant cover, and soils remain more highly compacted than in previously moderately trampled areas of the same sites. Changes in relative species cover over time are used to assess both resiliency to trampling and species composition recovery within campsites closed to visitor use.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Vegetation and soil recovery in wilderness campsites closed to visitor use |
| Series title | Environmental Management |
| DOI | 10.1007/BF01867262 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Year Published | 1986 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Springer-Verlag |
| Publisher location | New York, NY |
| Description | 6 p. |
| Larger Work Type | Article |
| Larger Work Subtype | Journal Article |
| Larger Work Title | Environmental Management |
| First page | 375 |
| Last page | 380 |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Other Geospatial | Sequoia National Park |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |