TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterizing forest fragmentation
T2 - Distinguishing change in composition from configuration
AU - Long, Jed A.
AU - Nelson, Trisalyn A.
AU - Wulder, Michael A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was funded by the Government of Canada through the Mountain Pine Beetle Program, a three-year, through the Mountain Pine Beetle Program, a three-year, $100 million program administered by Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service. Additional information on the Mountain Pine Beetle Program may be found at: 00 million program administered by Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service. Additional information on the Mountain Pine Beetle Program may be found at: http://mpb.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca . Chris Butson and Xiaoping Yuan of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range and Joanne White of the Canadian Forest Service are thanked for insight and access to data critical to the success of this research. Thanks to Dennis Jelinski, an anonymous reviewer, and the editor for helpful comments greatly improving this manuscript
PY - 2010/7
Y1 - 2010/7
N2 - Forest fragmentation can generally be considered as two components: 1) compositional change representing forest loss, and 2) configurational change or change in the arrangement of forest land cover. Forest loss and configurational change occur simultaneously, resulting in difficulties isolating the impacts of each component. Measures of forest fragmentation typically consider forest loss and configurational change together. The ecological responses to forest loss and configurational change are different, thus motivating the creation of measures capable of isolating these separate components. In this research, we develop and demonstrate a measure, the proportion of landscape displacement from configuration (Py), to quantify the relative contributions of forest loss and configurational change to forest fragmentation. Landscapes with statistically significant forest loss or configurational change are identified using neutral landscape simulations to generate underlying distributions for Py. The new measure, Py, is applied to a forest landscape where substantial forest loss has occurred from mountain pine beetle mitigation and salvage harvesting. The percent of forest cover and six LPIs (edge density, number of forest patches, area of largest forest patch, mean perimeter area ratio, corrected mean perimeter area ratio, and aggregation index) are used to quantify forest fragmentation and change. In our study area, significant forest loss occurs more frequently than significant configurational change. The Py method we demonstrate is effective at identifying landscapes undergoing significant forest loss, significant configurational change, or experiencing a combination of both loss and configurational change.
AB - Forest fragmentation can generally be considered as two components: 1) compositional change representing forest loss, and 2) configurational change or change in the arrangement of forest land cover. Forest loss and configurational change occur simultaneously, resulting in difficulties isolating the impacts of each component. Measures of forest fragmentation typically consider forest loss and configurational change together. The ecological responses to forest loss and configurational change are different, thus motivating the creation of measures capable of isolating these separate components. In this research, we develop and demonstrate a measure, the proportion of landscape displacement from configuration (Py), to quantify the relative contributions of forest loss and configurational change to forest fragmentation. Landscapes with statistically significant forest loss or configurational change are identified using neutral landscape simulations to generate underlying distributions for Py. The new measure, Py, is applied to a forest landscape where substantial forest loss has occurred from mountain pine beetle mitigation and salvage harvesting. The percent of forest cover and six LPIs (edge density, number of forest patches, area of largest forest patch, mean perimeter area ratio, corrected mean perimeter area ratio, and aggregation index) are used to quantify forest fragmentation and change. In our study area, significant forest loss occurs more frequently than significant configurational change. The Py method we demonstrate is effective at identifying landscapes undergoing significant forest loss, significant configurational change, or experiencing a combination of both loss and configurational change.
KW - Forest loss
KW - Landscape change
KW - Landscape displacement
KW - Mountain pine beetle
KW - Spatial pattern
KW - Trajectory analysis
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.12.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77952554518
SN - 0143-6228
VL - 30
SP - 426
EP - 435
JO - Applied Geography
JF - Applied Geography
IS - 3
ER -