Development issues in extending plant-based IBIs to forested wetlands in the Midwestern United States

Most plant-based indices of biotic integrity (IBIs) developed for wetlands have focused on emergent wetlands. A Vegetation Index of Biotic Integrity (VIBI-Forest) was developed for forested wetlands in the four large ecoregions of the Ohio. Assessing the effect of human disturbance on the ecological condition of wetland forests is complicated by several factors. First, forest canopies can remain largely intact even after significant degradation of the herb and shrub stratum. Second, increases in total diversity may not be good. In forested wetlands, a major artifact of disturbance is the addition of non-wetland or wetland native or adventive plant species adapted to full sun conditions to their floras. Initial versions of the VIBI-Forest metrics were very sensitive to disturbance-induced increases in diversity. Correcting this problem required modifying or replacing metrics so that only forest dependent species were included in metric calculations. The final VIBI-Forest included metrics which evaluated each forest stratum including the ground layer (% bryophyte), herb layer (shade or seed-less vascular plant species), shrub layer (subcanopy importance value (IV), relative density of young trees), canopy (canopy IV), and composite metrics for all vertical strata (Floristic Quality Assessment Index score, % hydrophytes, % sensitive, % tolerant). Assessing wetland forest condition is further complicated by the fact that some successional communities after canopy death or destruction (shrub swamp, marsh, wet meadow) may have intrinsic value as wetland community types. The solution is not to attempt to derive a one-size-fits-all assessment method but to derive separate protocols for other successional phases that are of value or interest.