Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon PDF Author: Anne C. S. McIntosh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781437929645
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. This study quantified and compared vertical and horizontal patterns of tree canopy structure and understory cover along a successional gradient of forests and among stands with different thinning histories on non-federal lands in western Oregon. Analyses focused on three dominant forest type groups: wet conifer, wet hardwood, and dry hardwood. Most of the cover in moist stands was in the upper tree layer, but cover in dry hardwood stands was more evenly distributed among layers. Findings suggest potential limitations of simple stand succession models that may not account for the range of forest types, site conditions, and developmental mechanisms found across western Oregon. Charts and tables.

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon PDF Author: Anne C. S. McIntosh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781437929645
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. This study quantified and compared vertical and horizontal patterns of tree canopy structure and understory cover along a successional gradient of forests and among stands with different thinning histories on non-federal lands in western Oregon. Analyses focused on three dominant forest type groups: wet conifer, wet hardwood, and dry hardwood. Most of the cover in moist stands was in the upper tree layer, but cover in dry hardwood stands was more evenly distributed among layers. Findings suggest potential limitations of simple stand succession models that may not account for the range of forest types, site conditions, and developmental mechanisms found across western Oregon. Charts and tables.

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon PDF Author: Anne C.S. McIntosh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest canopies
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description


Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon PDF Author: United States Department of Agriculture
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781506119755
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Canopy structure is an important attribute affecting economic and ecological values of forests in the Pacific Northwest. However, canopy cover and vertical layering are rarely measured directly; they are usually inferred from other forest measurements. In this study, we quantified and compared vertical and horizontal patterns of tree canopy structure and understory cover along a successional gradient of forests and among stands with different thinning histories on nonfederal lands in western Oregon. Analyses focused on three dominant forest type groups: wet conifer, wet hardwood, and dry hardwood. We used data from 917 systematically located, forested Forest Inventory and Analysis plots measured between 1995 and 1997. On each plot, canopy cover by layer and species was measured on line-intercept transects, and cover of understory species was measured on five subplots. Trends in canopy structure with stand age did not always follow the patterns predicted by common successional models. Most of the cover in moist stands was in the upper tree layer, but cover in dry hardwood stands was more evenly distributed among layers. Contrary to expectations of canopy closure, mean canopy cover by age class rarely exceeded 85 percent, even in unthinned productive young conifer forests. Possibly as a result, effects of stand age on understory vegetation were minimal, except for low levels of forbs found in 20- to 40-year-old wet conifer stands. Shadetolerant tree species rarely made up more than 20 percent of canopy cover, even in the lower canopy layers and in stands >100 years old. Although heavily thinned stands had lower total cover, canopy structure did not differ dramatically between thinned and unthinned stands. Our findings suggest potential limitations of simple stand succession models that may not account for the range of forest types, site conditions, and developmental mechanisms found across western Oregon.

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest canopies
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon

Canopy Structure on Forest Lands in Western Oregon PDF Author: Anne C. S. McIntosh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest canopies
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
Canopy structure is an important attribute affecting economic and ecological values of forests in the Pacific Northwest. However, canopy cover and vertical layering are rarely measured directly; they are usually inferred from other forest measurements. In this study, we quantified and compared vertical and horizontal patterns of tree canopy structure and understory cover along a successional gradient of forests and among stands with different thinning histories on nonfederal lands in western Oregon. Analyses focused on three dominant forest type groups: wet conifer, wet hardwood, and dry hardwood. We used data from 917 systematically located, forested Forest Inventory and Analysis plots measured between 1995 and 1997. On each plot, canopy cover by layer and species was measured on line-intercept transects, and cover of understory species was measured on five subplots. Trends in canopy structure with stand age did not always follow the patterns predicted by common successional models. Most of the cover in moist stands was in the upper tree layer, but cover in dry hardwood stands was more evenly distributed among layers. Contrary to expectations of canopy closure, mean canopy cover by age class rarely exceeded 85 percent, even in unthinned productive young conifer forests. Possibly as a result, effects of stand age on understory vegetation were minimal, except for low levels of forbs found in 20- to 40-year-old wet conifer stands. Shade-tolerant tree species rarely made up more than 20 percent of canopy cover, even in the lower canopy layers and in stands >100 years old. Although heavily thinned stands had lower total cover, canopy structure did not differ dramatically between thinned and unthinned stands. Our findings suggest potential limitations of simple stand succession models that may not account for the range of forest types, site conditions, and developmental mechanisms found across western Oregon.

Forest Canopy Sturcture in Western Oregon

Forest Canopy Sturcture in Western Oregon PDF Author: Anne C. S. Fiala
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 670

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Book Description
Characterization of canopy structure, the horizontal and vertical distribution of the tree crowns in a forest, is important for the management of forests in the Pacific Northwest. The canopy is an important habitat element for many wildlife species, canopy structure affects understory development, and influences various natural processes, such as the intensity of propagation of wildfire. Thus, improving our understanding of canopy structures and trends can aid forest management. The overall goal of this study was to characterize vertical and horizontal canopy structure for multiple forest groups in western Oregon. The specific objectives were to: 1) characterize vertical and horizontal canopy structure for dominant forest types in western Oregon, 2) evaluate methods for measuring canopy cover and structure, 3) compare methods to predict forest canopy cover and vertical diversity using standard inventory measurements, and 4) predict bird species occurrence with different canopy diversity measures. I evaluated patterns of vertical and horizontal canopy structure and understory cover along a successional gradient using 934 forested plots in western Oregon. Observed data were from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program from the 1995-97 survey on private and non-federal public lands. Patterns were examined for wet-conifer, wet-hardwood, and dry-hardwood forests. The upper tree canopy layer contributed the most to total cover except in the dry-hardwood stands, where the vertical distribution of tree cover was more evenly distributed. However, mean canopy cover rarely exceeded 85%, even in productive young conifer forests. Shade-tolerant species rarely made up more than 20% of canopy cover, even in the lower canopy layers and in stands> 100 yrs old. Contrary to expectations, percent cover of understory shrubs and herbs was not substantially lower in young closed-canopy stands than in other stands. Ground-based measures of canopy cover on inventory plots were compared to predictions with regression models that regressed canopy cover on standard forest measurements, with estimates from aerial photography, and predictions with the forest vegetation simulator (FVS) program. Model predictions from inventory measurements were within 15% of measured cover for> 82% of the observations. Standard inventory estimates of cover using 1:40,000 scale aerial photos were poorly correlated with ground-measured cover, especially in wet-hardwood (r=0.58) and dry-hardwood (r0.61) stands. FVS tended to underestimate cover by up to 50% in wet-conifer and wet-hardwood stands. The aerial photos and FVS equations used in this study are not recommended as surrogates for ground-based measurements of cover. However, the level of accuracies of the predictive models developed in this study may be adequate for some purposes. I compared fourteen measures of vertical structural diversity and layering using the inventory plots. I then attempted to predict selected vertical diversity indices from standard forest variables. Simpson's diversity index on tree heights best differentiated among the range of vertical structure classes of the inventory plots. I developed predictive equations for Simpson's height diversity index (SDI), Foliage Height Diversity (FHD), and Canopy Height Diversity Index (CHDI), which used basal area, standard deviation of dbh, and stem frequency of size classes as the best variables. Predicted SDI values were within 0 15 units of calculated SDI for> 79% of the observations, predicted CHDI values were within 1.5 units for> 91% of the observations, except in the dry-hardwood stands (only 69%), and predicted FHD measures were within 0.2 units for> 85% of the observations among forest groups. The equations for FHD and SDI were applied to a wildlife-habitat database for western Oregon to determine if classification efficiency of existing models using CHDI to predict presence of bird species could be improved. The classification efficiency of bird-habitat association models improved for 33% and 66% of models for the Oregon Coast Range with the FHD and SDI variables, respectively. Models with FHD and SDI had improved classification efficiency for 18% of Cascade Range models. Although improvements in classification efficiency were less than six percentage points, future use of these diversity indices is warranted in place of CHDI when estimates of FHD and/or SDI are available and CHDI estimates are not. Four ground-based techniques for estimating forest overstory cover - line-intercept, spherical densiometer, moosehorn, and hemispherical photography - and estimates generated using FVS were compared across a range of stand structure types. Canopy cover estimates for the four ground-based methods were not correlated with structure type. Differences among estimates of cover using FVS and the other methods did depend on the forest structure type. Differences among ground-based methods were primarily related to differences in angle of view. Although the line-intercept had the narrowest angle of view, the moosehorn provided the most conservative estimates of overstory cover. Regression equations were derived to allow conversion among canopy cover estimates developed with the four ground-based methods. The FVS calculated cover should not be used as a substitute for ground-based measures in these forest types given that it was consistently much lower (up to 70%) than estimates from the ground-based methods within each forest-structure type. Overall, this study provides researchers and forest managers with new information and tools that can be applied across the forested landscape of Oregon. Models to predict canopy cover and diversity, and bird habitat can be substituted for field studies, assuming the accuracies of predictions are adequate for desired purposes. In field studies where ground-based cover measures are needed, the moosehorn is recommended as the most conservative estimator of cover. For more detailed canopy data, the line-intercept method is warranted. Modifying the line-intercept method to use fixed height intervals may be preferable to the use of three relative layers. This adjustment will allow for more direct comparisons of canopy cover of layers among stands.

Variability in Older Forest Structure in Western Oregon

Variability in Older Forest Structure in Western Oregon PDF Author: Nathan Jeremy Poage
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forests and forestry
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description


Historical and Current Forest Landscapes of Eastern Oregon and Washington

Historical and Current Forest Landscapes of Eastern Oregon and Washington PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forest insects
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description


New Approaches to Forest Planning

New Approaches to Forest Planning PDF Author: Troy E. Hall
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 143792963X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Chronicles a large-scale effort to map place values across the Pacific Northwest Region (Washington and Oregon) of the U.S. Forest Service. 485 socio-culturally meaningful places were identified. Staff also generated corresponding descriptions of the places¿ unique social and biophysical elements ¿ in other words, ¿niche¿ qualities and ¿niche¿ statements that reflected people¿s values. These places and their niches were then mapped using geographic info. systems technology. Niche info. was supplemented with additional existing data such as Nat. Visitor Use Monitoring, National Survey of Recreation and the Environ., and other social and economic info. Applications of this information-gathering technique were discussed. Illustrations.

Forest Canopies

Forest Canopies PDF Author: Margaret Lowman
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0124575536
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
The treetops of the world's forests are where discovery and opportunity abound, however they have been relatively inaccessible until recently. This book represents an authoritative synthesis of data, anecdotes, case studies, observations, and recommendations from researchers and educators who have risked life and limb in their advocacy of the High Frontier. With innovative rope techniques, cranes, walkways, dirigibles, and towers, they finally gained access to the rich biodiversity that lives far above the forest floor and the emerging science of canopy ecology. In this new edition of Forest Canopies, nearly 60 scientists and educators from around the world look at the biodiversity, ecology, evolution, and conservation of forest canopy ecosystems. Comprehensive literature list State-of-the-art results and data sets from current field work Foremost scientists in the field of canopy ecology Expanded collaboration of researchers and international projects User-friendly format with sidebars and case studies Keywords and outlines for each chapter