REM 411 - Rangeland Vegetation Monitoring & Data Analysis

(4 units)

Most of Nevada lies within the Great Basin cold desert and Mojave warm desert ecosystems. Some 98% of the state is in rangelands that provide pastoral communities ecosystems services that include food, energy, and shelter. Without rangeland plant communities and soils, most of Nevada’s wildlife and domestic livestock would not exist. Thus, there is a need to inventory, monitor, and assess the condition and trend of rangeland vegetation and soils in time and space in order to determine the sustainability of this critical resource. Most of the federal, international, and non-governmental (NGO) land management agencies require professionals with the skills to inventory, monitor, and assess the attributes of flora and the surrounding environment. Consequently, the primary goal
of this course is to introduce and develop the marketable skills in vegetation inventory,
monitoring, analysis, and assessment that are required for employment with the state, the federal government, and NGOs.

This course can be taught in-person or hybrid (in-person and online), but with a mandatory field learning component. This class includes online learning materials and activities. This course is a part of the integrated Fall REM course block (REM 411-REM 498-REM 499-REM 490). There is a mandatory 2-week field lab trip. Students will be provided with a detailed full-semester schedule.

Maximum units a student may earn: 4

Prerequisite(s): APST 270 or STAT 152 ; REM 340 ; GEOG 210 or Graduate Standing

Grading Basis: Graded
Units of Lecture: 2
Units of Laboratory/Studio: 2
Offered: Every Fall

Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. define the terms Inventory, Monitoring, & Assessment.
2. describe how scale effects rangeland measurement decisions.
3. maintain a field/lab notebook.
4. conduct, define, describe and differentiate between various quantitative monitoring methods used to describe rangeland riparian areas and uplands.
5. design and implement monitoring plans, analyze vegetation data (Spreadsheet), and use graphics, tables, and other technical reporting approaches.
6. proprietary and open source software including spreadsheets, spatial analysis software, statistical methods, and Google Earth Pro to: establish a sampling design and delineate sampling units.
7. work collaboratively in teams of diverse individuals and exercise leadership skills on projects.
8. construct a monitoring plan to answer a question(s) and draft a analysis report.

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