Scientists from LGL have expertise concerning:
- Inventories of plant species (including mosses)
- Inventories of fungi / mushrooms and lichens
- Vegetation mapping and classification
- Ecosystem mapping
- Rare and endangered plant species
- Rare and endangered plant associations
Objectives of our projects often include:
- Assessments of Habitat suitability for various plants and animals
- Habitat modeling
- Effects of development and/or disturbance on vegetation
- Effects of development and/or disturbance on individual (rare or otherwise important) plant species
- Ecosystem classification for baseline studies and inventories
- Determination of sensitive ecosystems
- Development of mitigation and restoration strategies for disturbed habitats
- Recultivation and monitoring
Typical projects include:
- Assessment of projected impacts on rare and endangered plant species and rare plant associations in areas slated for development
- Assessment of the impacts to rare and endangered plant species and rare plant associations along linear structures (pipelines, right-of-way, highways, etc.)
- Restoration of altered / disturbed habitats
- Assessment of the effectiveness of vegetation management
Specialized methodologies:
- Global positioning system (GPS)
- Vegetation sampling equipment
- Habitat evaluation procedures
- Geographic information systems (GIS)
- Habitat modeling
- Multivariate statistical analyses: Ordination (Principal Components, Canonical Correlation, [Detrended] Correspondence Analysis); Classification (various clustering techniques, TWINSPAN, Marxan)
- Distance sampling and analysis
