Forest inventory and analysis: a national inventory and monitoring program

Smith, W. Brad

doi:10.1016/s0269-7491(01)00255-x

Cited by 245 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

168

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…During the 19th century, US public land surveys recorded detailed information about individual (witness) trees used as corner markers on a national grid. In the early 20th century, national forest inventories were established to monitor timber resources and forest conditions (33). Forest inventories are geographically extensive, based on probability-designed samples, and repeated.…”

Section: Observing Changes In Plant Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics

Franklin

Serra‐Diaz

Syphard

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

334

225

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This contribution is part of a special series of Inaugural Articles by members of the National Academy of Sciences elected in 2014.Contributed by Janet Franklin, February 2, 2016 (sent for review October 8, 2015; reviewed by Gregory P. Asner, Monica G. Turner, and Peter M. Vitousek)Anthropogenic drivers of global change include rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses and resulting changes in the climate, as well as nitrogen deposition, biotic invasions, altered disturbance regimes, and land-use change. Predicting the effects of global change on terrestrial plant communities is crucial because of the ecosystem services vegetation provides, from climate regulation to forest products. In this paper, we present a framework for detecting vegetation changes and attributing them to global change drivers that incorporates multiple lines of evidence from spatially extensive monitoring networks, distributed experiments, remotely sensed data, and historical records. Based on a literature review, we summarize observed changes and then describe modeling tools that can forecast the impacts of multiple drivers on plant communities in an era of rapid change. Observed responses to changes in temperature, water, nutrients, land use, and disturbance show strong sensitivity of ecosystem productivity and plant population dynamics to water balance and long-lasting effects of disturbance on plant community dynamics. Persistent effects of land-use change and human-altered fire regimes on vegetation can overshadow or interact with climate change impacts. Models forecasting plant community responses to global change incorporate shifting ecological niches, population dynamics, species interactions, spatially explicit disturbance, ecosystem processes, and plant functional responses. Monitoring, experiments, and models evaluating multiple change drivers are needed to detect and predict vegetation changes in response to 21st century global change.climate change | drought | forests | global change | land-use change T errestrial plant communities include forests, woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands; they support economic activities including forestry and grazing and provide other ecosystem services (1) such as carbon sequestration and water delivery. Plant communities play a key role in global biogeochemical cycles of carbon, oxygen, water, and nitrogen, with feedbacks to the oceans, atmosphere, and climate. The distribution of animals on land is often influenced by the distribution of vegetation, and therefore, plant community dynamics affect biodiversity. Changes in the Earth's vegetation in response to climate change, and associated faunal changes, may have played a role in the evolution of the human lineage (2, 3). Thus, human populations have a vested interest in understanding rapid global change effects on terrestrial plant communities.Anthropogenic drivers of global change include rising atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 and other greenhouse gasses and associated changes in the climate, as well...

show abstract

Section: Observing Changes In Plant Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics

Franklin

Serra‐Diaz

Syphard

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

334

225

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We used data from a geographic information system (GIS) database containing PLS witness tree information (the species, diameter, azimuth, and distance from corner) for all section and quarter corners in the Driftless Area (Shea et al, 2014). While there is some degree of error in the PLS witness tree records, typically associated with surveyor bias, our use of the data to assess relative changes in species group dominance across broad spatial scales limits the impact of surveyor bias (Schulte and Mladenoff, 2001;Liu et al, 2011 (Smith, 2002). For more than 80 years, each state's forestland has been surveyed on a cycle of about every 8-15 years; the dates for each survey varied by state (USDA Forest Service, 2013).…”

Section: Description Of Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a preferred to undesirable future

Knoot

Shea

Schulte

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the midwestern and eastern U.S., oaks (Quercus spp.) have been a dominant component of forests for at least the last 10,000 years, providing vital habitat for numerous wildlife and plant species that have adapted to oak forest conditions. However, the current state of these oak systems, in which there has been a general lack of successful oak regeneration and recruitment and an increase in the relative dominance of mesophytic species, may be nearing critical thresholds. If reached, restoring oak systems through natural regeneration and other methods, such as prescribed fire, may become especially challenging if not impossible. An understanding of spatial variation in oak dominance over time can inform and potentially improve the efficacy of intervention strategies. Using Public Land Survey and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) inventories, we evaluated changes in the composition of timberland across ecoregional subsections in the Driftless Area of the Midwest at three time periods (pre-settlement 1800s, 1990s, and 2000s). We identified an overall decrease in oak dominance, and particularly dominance of the white oak (Quercus alba L., Q. macrocarpa Michx., and Q. bicolor Willd.) species group since the presettlement era, and an increase in other eastern soft hardwoods. Within the last 20 years, both the red oak (Q. rubra L., Q. ellipsoidalis E.J. Hill and Q. velutina Lam.) and white oak species groups decreased in dominance, with an increase in hard maple-basswood (A. saccharum Marsh., A. nigra L., and Tilia americana L.) species group dominance, indicating further mesophication of forests in the region. However, we found a notable decrease in hard maple-basswood relative dominance within the small diameter class across most of the regions within the last 10-20 years, with an increase in dominance of other, non-oak, species. Our findings complement qualitative evidence from interviews with natural resource professionals from the region and offer further information on the potential for forest conversion to ''undesirable'' forest conditions, as identified as a source of concern by some professionals. There was spatial variation in these trends, however, with some pronounced differences across adjacent state boundaries. The variation in forest change across state boundaries suggests the role of state-level socioeconomic and policy factors in affecting forest conditions, and thus the potential for a targeted and timely approach to promoting preferred pathways of change. RightsWorks produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. a b s t r a c tIn the midwestern and eastern U.S., oaks (Quercus spp.) have been a dominant component of forests for at least the last 10,000 years, providing vital habitat for numerous wildlife and plant species that have adapted to oak forest conditions. However, the current state of these oak systems, in which there has been a general lack of successful oak reg...

show abstract

“…The program collects, compiles and archives data on forest status and health for all types of land throughout the US, based on a gridded set of plots across the country (Smith 2002). The current national FIA protocol divides plots into four 7.3 m (24 ft) radius circular subplots.…”

Section: Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing forest structure across the landscape of the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA, since the 1930s

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the dynamics of forest structure aids inference regarding future forests and their distributions around the world. Over the last few decades, several papers have addressed changing forest structure in the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA, but these studies were limited in scope. We carried out a broad comparison of forest density and composition in the 1930s versus the 2000s for the west slope of the central and northern Sierra Nevada, using the two most extensive data sets available. Forests in this region have endured a long, complex history of human disturbance, and are now experiencing climatic shifts. We subdivided the landscape into elevation and latitude zones and compared historical and modern tree densities within each zone. We compared densities in historical plots to burned and unburned modern plots, as well as densities of individual tree species in historical vs. modern plots for their entire elevational distribution. Density of small trees (10.2–30.4 cm dbh) was significantly higher in the modern data set for all elevations and all latitudes, ranging from 20 to 148% higher. However, density of large trees (≥61.0 cm) was lower in the modern data set for most elevations and latitudes, ranging from 41% to 60% lower in most zones. Density difference of mid‐sized trees (30.5–60.9 cm) was mixed, but was generally higher in modern plots. The pattern of more small trees but fewer large trees held for most individual species as well, but with notable exceptions. Our comparison of burned and unburned plots strongly implicates fire suppression as a driver of increased density of small trees in low‐ to mid‐elevation forests. However, modern high‐elevation (>2500 m) forests, where fire suppression impacts should be minimal, were also significantly denser than historical plots. Changing climatic conditions may be driving increased densities of small trees in high elevations, as well as decreased densities of large trees across the region.

show abstract

Forest inventory and analysis: a national inventory and monitoring program

Cited by 245 publications

References 8 publications

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics

Forest change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a preferred to undesirable future

Changing forest structure across the landscape of the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA, since the 1930s

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About