The method I'm going to describe now is the line-point intercept method. Line-point intercept is a rapid and accurate method for quantifying soil cover including vegetation, litter, rocks, and biotic crusts. These measurements are related to wind and water erosion, water infiltration, and the ability of the site to resist and recover from degradation. You begin this method by starting at the zero end of the line, always reading from left to right, and always standing on the right side of the line so that the numbers on the tape are right side up. So moving to the first point what we do is: find the first point on tape, keep your pin vertical—always vertical—to the ground, and keep the pin height roughly six inches off the top of the tallest vegetation at that point or the soil surface at that point. We let the pin fall freely down to the ground and the object is to aim for the point on the tape and not to specifically try to end up right next to that point. We're just using a point as a target: if the point doesn't fall exactly where you want it to that's okay. We just let it fall. This is a random— random point. We're just letting it fall and calling it where it falls. So I let it drop— notice it's about an inch away from a line but that's okay and so I'm going to slowly go through what I would normally do in one or two seconds. My eyes follow from the top the pin all the way down to the ground level. I'm looking for anything that might touch the pin. As my eyes move down, it first encounters this BOER grass. And so that becomes the first species in the top canopy column in the data form. And then as it follows down to the ground the pin is is resting on litter—so I record litter in the lower canopy— and finally it rests on bare soil so that's recorded as "S" in the bottom layer on the datasheet. So in the end, in one or two seconds, I would have come up to the point; let it drop; called "BOER", "litter", "soil"; and moved on to the next point. It's very important when you're doing this method that the reader knows every species on the site before actually running the line. The reason for that is that you don't want somebody deliberating a long time at a point trying to figure out a species because the longer you sit there trying to figure out what a species is more tendency you have to move the pin around—thus increasing the chance of a hit— and more tendency you have for the wind to blow the vegetation against the pin which is also a bad thing: you're going to overestimate cover in that case. So it's important to walk up to a point, let the pin fall, make a reading instantly, and move on. One problem that we frequently encounter is the parallax problem when reading line-point intercept. Parallax is when you're reading the line out of vertical such as if my eyes are too far back behind the line I would tend to project towards that side of the tape which is incorrect. In this case, I would hit this sorrel plant when I shouldn't have originally. The other direction is if my eyes are coming too far over the tape, projecting back on that side. In this case, also, I would have hit this plant where normally I would not. So you always want to keep your eyes right above the graduated side of the tape and aim to keep the pin vertical as possible. In order to do this you want to keep your whole body bent over almost at an ninety degree angle for the entire length of the line. This helps prevent this parallax problem. Pretend a plumb bob is coming out of your eye and going down to the ground. Another important reason to stay bent over is being able to see small pieces of litter or other items on the soil surface. If you're down low to the ground you're able to see things as big as a human hair, like awns, grasses, and pieces of litter that size. However if you're standing straight up there's much less chance you're going to be able to see those pieces so it's important to stay bent over and keep your head as close as comfortably possible while doing this method. This is how we record a basal hit and basal hit on a grass, more specifically. If my point landed right here and my pin was dropped, I would call this "BOER", "litter", and "BOER". And I'm going to pull back the grass to demonstrate this. My pin— it landed right here. I'm inside the culm of that grass so this is a basal hit on this black grama grass. If my pin would have landed right here, that is not a basal hit. One of the rules for determining a basal hit is if you draw an imaginary line around the outside the culm of that grass and your point falls within that circle it is a basal here. So in that case this is a basal hit and that would not be a basal hit. This is how we would describe a point with no canopy cover or no soil cover If the point had fallen here, you can see canopy is touching the pin and nothing is touching the pin at the soil surface. So we have none in top canopy column and "S" in soil surface column. This is how we describe litter in the line-point intercept method. Litter is defined as organic material that is not rooted to the ground— in other words, this grass blade sitting on the soil surface— and also woody litter is anything that is litter not rooted to the ground that is five millimeters or larger in diameter, such as this yucca stalk. So my point had fallen here, I have "no canopy", "litter", "soil". And if my point had fallen here, I have "no canopy", "woody litter"—or "WL"—in the lower canopy column, and "S" on the soil surface. The rock size class for the line-point intercept method is defined as the five millimeter cut-off: any rock that is five millimeters or larger is considered rock on the data form; anything less than five millimeters is not considered rock. So—if we look at this rock right here— it's right at the five millimeter cut-off: we would consider that rock and it would go in as an "R" in the soil surface column This rock here is too small: we wouldn't consider that rock—it's just part of the mineral soil. And these rocks are also larger. They would count as rock—or "R" in the soil surface column. Another point to make: if my pin had landed on top of this rock that counts as "R" in the soil surface column. Also, if this pin had landed next to that rock and touching it, it's counted as "R" in the soil surface column column but if pin rests next to the rock but not touching it of course that is not considered a rock hit. Occasionally you will encounter a visible biotic crust adhereing to the soil surface. In this case, we have a visible cyanobacterial crust showing up as black dots or black mats on the soil surface. Also included in this category are visible lichens. If your point lands on this, we call this "no canopy" and "LC" in the soil surfce column. The way we describe multiple hits of the same plant or the same species is this: if my pin had dropped here, I count this ephedra only once and it's the first time it hits, right here. Because if I follow my eyes down it hits this borage next but then it hits the same plant— the ephedra again. Regardless if this is the same plant or another individual, it's the same species and we only count that species once— and that's the first time it hits from a top-down point of view. So—again my eyes are following down— hits the ephedra once—I record that in the top canopy column— record the borage next, and I do not record the ephedra again. I continue down the soil surface and call whatever's there. This is an example of hitting multiple layers of vegetation with the line-point intercept. If my point had fallen here. I would call this mesquite first. Then my eye goes down the pin, hits the blackfoot daisy second, this wooly sumpweed third, litter, and then soil. So on the data form I would have: PRGL2, MELE2, IVDE, litter, soil. It's important when making measurements in the line-point intercept method to stay on top the tape at all times. Sometimes this means getting inside thorny or spiny vegetation such as this mesquite shrub. The reason for this is because you cannot make measurements standing out to the side like this. You have to be on top the point in order to see straight down the pin. In this case, we would have: SPFL2, PRGL2, litter, soil. You have to put personal comfort aside sometimes to get a legitimate reading. Sometimes the wind creates problems in reading line-point intercept, bouncing vegetation on and off the pin. It's important to take a quick visual snapshot to alleviate this problem. If I set the pin down and then take a quick look down the pin, determine whether or not the vegetation is touching, make a call, and move on. What I'm going to do now is read the line-point intercept line at normal speed. Michelle's going to record for me. Notice that she's standing back, off the line, and able to hear me—within earshot. So, starting at point 1 is: BOER4 over BOER4. PSTA, litter, soil. CRPO5, litter, soil. None, soil. None, soil. SPFL2, litter, soil IVDE, CRPO5, litter, soil. IVDE, soil. None, soil. None, soil. LEPE2, IVDE, litter, soil. PRGL2, litter, soil. PRGL2, soil. None, litter, soil. LEPE2, litter, soil. None, soil. None, soil. IVDE, soil. ARPU9, ARPU9. None, litter, soil. GUSA, litter, soil. PRGL2, MUPO, litter, soil. None, soil. None, soil. What I'm going to do now is go down the line and describe some of the more interesting points along this line. At meter 1, I called "BOER4, BOER4" and how I did that is I dropped the pin—my hand slides down like my eyes did— hit BOER4 canopy here then, as you can see, it landed right in the middle of this BOER4 plant base. So, "BOER4, BOER4" was how I called that point. At point number 2, I called "PSTA, litter, soil". As my eyes came down, PSTA encounters the pin here. Moving down, ecounters here but I only count it once, litter, and soil. This is a good time to mention that litter can be— can occur in two different ways. Both beside the pin and if the litter rests under or the pin goes through the litter—that also counts as a litter hit. And point number four we have "none, soil". You can see no canopy is hitting the pin and it rests on bare mineral soil, just missing these pieces of litter. Point number seven is an example of multiple hits of vegetation and multiple hits of the same species. Moving the eye down the pin, we encounter the Iva first, the Croton next, another hit of Iva but we only count it once from above, and then litter on the soil surface. So we had: "Iva, Croton, litter, soil". Point number fourteen is an example of "none, litter, soil". You can see it just misses this plant, rests on the litter —also touches the litter next to it— and bare soil's underneath. So: None, litter, soil. Point 22 is an example of dense vegetation and an example of how you can just barely hit a leaf even though you're inside the canopy of a shrub. As I dropped the pin, it hit some of these leaflets of the mesquite and then as my eye goes down the pin it hit some blades of this bush muhly grass and then as it continued on down —I'll pull some of this grass aside—it rests on the litter and then soil. And so in this case even though we're in the center this shrub I just barely hit a leaflet of the PRGL2 and then I hit great blades the grass, MUPO, litter, and soil. Point 37 is an example where you have to remove the vegetation to see what's at the ground level. In this case we have two grasses: threeawn and a black grama. It hits the threeawn first then normally I would think this would be resting on bare soil but upon removing canopy or pulling the canopy back you can see it actually hitting the base of a black grama plant. So we have: ARPU9, BOER4, BOER4.