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Terrestrial Inventories Start with Soil Mapping
In 1982 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) defined an ecological site inventory method in order to monitor and inventory the resources on BLM lands. In general, this technical report is produced by a team of natural resource specialists and its foundation relies on soil data to create units for an inventory map. Then vegetation communities are correlated to the soil areas. This is the beginning of the process.
Terrestrial Inventories Sample Vegetation, Water, and other Features
When this soil/vegetation map has been created, areas are identified and called site write up areas (SWAs). Within these areas, test plots are established and dry weights of vegetation biomass by species is calculated from field samples. Depending upon the level of detail, other field data may be collected such as elevation, biological soil crust, noxious weeds, description of water features and water quality data, and percent cover. Aerial pictures and geographic information systems assist in data gathering. Finally the data is assembled and entered into a database.
Marine Ecological Inventories Start with Sediment Mapping
Inventorying a marine environment follows a similar procedure as a terrestrial process. In a Canadian inventory, the shoreline marine habitat sediments were sampled to various depths and at equal distance intervals. This helped to establish a baseline of spatial units where sediments were similar in order to establish a mapping area.
Marine Inventories Sample Marine Life and Features
After establishing sediment correlations and mapping, then soil life was sampled, weighed and typed by species. Marine inventories also sample marine life, such as corals, anemones, sea animals, crustaceans and marine mammals in ecological inventories. Ecological inventories require precise planning and ecological field research methods that are technical and can be used to extrapolate from several plots to the entire area being studied.