Abstract
Wildlife species-habitat matrices are used to relate lists of species with abundance of their habitats. The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program provides data on forest composition and structure, but these attributes may not correspond directly with definitions of wildlife habitats. We used FIA tree data and tree crown diameter models to estimate canopy cover, from which we assigned FIA conditions to NatureServe forest and woodland habitat domains and National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) forest classes within the 20-state northern FIA region. Hardwood and softwood types were most abundant for FIA, least abundant for NLCD, and intermediate for NatureServe classes. NatureServe hardwood types were evenly distributed between forest and woodland, but softwood types were more abundant in NatureServe woodland than forest. Mixed types were substantially more abundant for NLCD, intermediate for NatureServe (equally distributed between forest and woodland), and least abundant for FIA. Area of woody wetlands, which were defined only for NLCD, exceeded area of NLCD softwoods. These habitat assignments are useful for estimating current and potential future abundance of habitats for forest-associated terrestrial vertebrate wildlife species in the region.
Parent Publication
Keywords
statistics,
estimation,
sampling,
modeling,
remote sensing,
forest health,
data integrity,
environmental monitoring,
cover estimation,
international forest monitoring
Citation
Nelson, Mark D.; Tavernia, Brian G.; Toney, Chris; Walters, Brian F. 2012. Relating FIA data to habitat classifications via tree-based models of canopy cover. In: Morin, Randall S.; Liknes, Greg C., comps. Moving from status to trends: Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) symposium 2012; 2012 December 4-6; Baltimore, MD. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-105. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. [CD-ROM]: 254-259.
