2008 Research Highlights
Getting the "Whole" Story from Understory
The national Forest Health Monitoring Program has developed a series of forest health indicators currently being implemented by Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) as part of a Phase 3 (forest health monitoring) sampling system. FIA is now reporting on the status of these indicators in their 5-year comprehensive state analytical reports. FIA is also interested in documenting the science behind these indicators by publishing a series of General Technical Reports on each. The Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center collaborated with Pacific Northwest Forest Research Station to produce a detailed guide to "Sampling and Estimation Procedures for the Vegetation Diversity and Structure Indicator".
This research represents the first successful attempt to develop and implement nationally consistent procedures to sample understory vegetation at the regional and national scales. This publication specifies the estimation (and sampling error) calculations necessary to process and analyze the data. These results will be used by FIA and Forest Health Monitoring analysts, and their numerous collaborators, to monitor and report on the health of forest understory species.
Contact: Bill Bechtold, Forest Health Monitoring team leader, (828) 257-4357, wabechtold@fs.fed.us
Partners: Forest Inventory and Analysis, Forest Health Monitoring, International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forest
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Photo by Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, www.bugwood.org
