Ecoregional Floristic Quality Assessment Tools for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions: Linking EPA Region 2 (New Jersey and New York) with EPA Regions 1 and 3

Abstract

Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is a robust, botanically based method for assessing the quality of ecological communities and natural areas. Integral to the method is that each native plant species in a state or region is assigned a Coefficient of Conservatism, or C value, based on its response to stressors. Although FQAs are often completed at the state level, jurisdictional units are not optimal for addressing changes in species behavior across their range. For this reason, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has funded various projects to support development of ecoregional C values. Ecoregional C (“eC”) values were developed for Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic States) in 2012 and in Region 1 (New England) in 2019. But integration of eC values was not complete for ecoregions in region 2 (New Jersey and New York). In this project eC values were assessed for 5559 taxa across 10 ecoregions in EPA Regions 1, 2, and 3. All eC data is posted on Universal FQA by Ecoregion.