With every cliff system we survey within the Southern Appalachians we find a unique and interesting assemblage of organisms.  Cliff ecosystems in the Southern Appalachians are often refugia for glacial relicts and rare, restricted and endangered species.  For this reason we will conduct a survey of vascular and nonvascular plants and lichens for the xeric cliff systems along the newly acquired lands of the Highway 129 corridor in Tennessee for the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  We will use a systematic survey using 1 m2 quadrants spaced 3 meters apart along randomly placed vertical transects on these xeric cliff faces extending across the cliff edge in areas where bare rock is exposed and across the talus at the foot of the cliff system.  These data will be recorded as percent species coverage for each quadrant.  Each transect will be delineated by GPS coordinates.  Species of special concern will likewise be delineated.

Collectors List: CollectorList.pdf

Family Count Graph: FamilyCountAcGraph.pdf

Genera of Largest Family Graph: GenusCountAcGraph.pdf

Project Information: ProjectInfo.pdf

Samplings List: SamplingsList.pdf

Species Ranking: SpeciesDistributionRanking.pdf

Species Report: Taxonomy.pdf

Specimen Count Per Year: NewSppTracking.pdf

Upper Taxa List: UpperTaxa.pdf

Principal Investigator

PI Name:  Dr. Gary Walker

PI Organization:  Appalachian State University

Co-investigator #1

Co-PI Name:  S.C. McCleneghan

Co-PI Organization:  Shrooms, Inc.

Co-investigator #2

Co-PI Name:  Eric Purdy (student)

Co-PI Organization: Appalachian State University

Primary Taxonomist

Taxonomist Name:  S.C. McCleneghan

Taxonomist Organization:  Shrooms, Inc.