Vegetation Inventories Insights from Southern Ontario Alex MacIntosh Southern Science and Information Section March 8, 2011 SSIB
Objective:
1. What is a vegetation inventory? 2. How can we use vegetation inventories? 3. What types of vegetation inventories are available in southern Ontario?
Nature Conservancy of Canada
SSIB
Nature Conservancy of Canada Nature Conservancy of Canada SSIB
SSIB
What is a Vegetation Inventory?
Vegetation Inventory Protocol Database Data Collection Or Compilation
Base Information
Output or Product
Application
Mapping
North Carolina Forest Defence Campaign SSIB
What sort of vegetation inventory would we like to have in southern Ontario? North Carolina Forest Defence Campaign
Meets our resource management, conservation and planning needs
http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/news/590
Management activity: Invasive species mitigation/adaptation Desired product:
Inventory data required: • Tree species data, including ash
Distribution of ash species for the 6e10 Ecodistrict.
http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/news/590
Emerald ash borer.
Management activity: Carbon quantification Desired product:
Inventory data required: • Lambert et al. 2005 – Tree species – Tree DBH – Tree height (optional)
• Other carbon pools? – – – –
Total live tree carbon, Bruce Peninsula
Standing dead trees Down woody debris Understory vegetation Soil and litter
Management activity: Determining species at risk habitat Desired product:
Inventory data required: • Deciduous forest type: maple dominant with ash, oak & hickory; no silver maple • Tree size: basal area, DBH, # of stems, height • Canopy closure • Super canopy • Proximity to water • Patch isolation • Patch core area: >10ha • Proximity to known occurrences
Cerulian Warbler Habitat Suitability Index mapping, Parks Canada (2009).
Management activity: Determining species at risk habitat Additional habitat suitability models: • • • • •
Blunt-lobed woodsia Five-lined skink Least bittern Stinkpot turtle Louisiana waterthrush
Extending the concept: • Non-timber forest products? • Locating culturally significant species?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60047451@N00/1570268609/sizes/m/in/photostream/ http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/286502
Management activity: Assessing climate change vulnerability Desired product: 2011-40
2041-70
2071-2100
Predicted probability of white pine species presence for the Lake Simcoe watershed.
Inventory data required: • Tree species: wall-to-wall
• Herbaceous layer? • Shrub layer?
Management activity: Locating significant woodlands Desired Product:
Inventory data required:
• Spatial location of significant woodlands
species diversity SSIB
1. Identify criteria for defining significant woodlands. 2. Identify areas that meet the criteria.
basal area
SSIB
canopy closure
What sort of vegetation inventory would we like to have in southern Ontario? • One that meets our current needs: • Do we know what we have? • Wall-to-wall? • Do we know how what we have has changed through time? • Trend analysis?
• One that meets the needs of the future: • Climate change? • Invasive species? IPCC, 4th Assessment Report
Vegetation Inventories in southern Ontario:
Species At Risk
Biomass and Carbon
Invasive Species
Significant Woodlands
Climate Change Predictions
OFRI Ontario Forest Resource Inventory
SOLRIS Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System
NFI National Forest Inventory
VSP Vegetation Sampling Protocol
ELC Ecological Land Classification
G&Y Ontario Growth and Yield Program
OFBN Ontario Forest Biomonitoring Network
???
Vegetation Inventories in southern Ontario:
OFRI Ontario Forest Resource Inventory
SOLRIS Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System
NFI National Forest Inventory
VSP Vegetation Sampling Protocol
ELC Ecological Land Classification
G&Y Ontario Growth and Yield Program
OFBN Ontario Forest Biomonitoring Network
Field data collection?
× × √
√ √ √ √
Photo interpretation or automated classification?
Mapping Component?
√
√
√ √ √ √
√
× ×
× ×
× √ √
Issue: Relying solely on remote interpretation Examples:
Implications:
• OFRI • SOLRIS • Some ELC mapping
• SAR
• Carbon
OFRI: Inventory variable:
Pinto et. al, 2007
Thompson et . al, 2007
Species composition (fine)
39% agreement
64% misclassification
Species composition (coarse)
n/a
30% misclassification
Stand height
Sig. difference
n/a
Stand volume
n/a
10-20% overestimate
Issue: Inventory density and coverage Inventory Number of Plots
Plots/1000 km2
NFI
40
0.5
G&Y
252
3.1
OFBN
110
1.3
NFI ground plots
OFRI • Southern Ontario?
Issue: Inventory density and coverage: Private land
Southern Ontario:
• 80-90% private land • Southwestern Ontario – 5% forested land, nearly all private
• Permission to gather inventory data is not easy to acquire!
Issue: Inventory protocol Inventory OFBN G&Y
Objective
Protocol Application Bias in inventory Air quality and climate change Only data from mature stands is monitoring available Monitor growth dynamics and predict future growth
Protocol application: • Different approaches applied by different users • E.g. – ELC Community Class/Series – ELC Vegetation Type
Data required to create growth and yield models
Issue: Classification • Structural info? Dry-fresh sugar maple-beech deciduous forest Nature Conservancy of Canada
• Specific species composition? • Specific soil properties?
• Gradients lost: different variables change in different ways
Nature Conservancy of Canada
Issue: Classification: Confusing landcover and vegetation mapping Landcover mapping
Vegetation mapping
• Classifies all landcover types • Examples:
• Only classifies vegetation
– SOLRIS – ELC Community Class/Series mapping
SOLRIS
Issue: Trend analysis Inventory
Date of establishment
Planned sampling frequency
OFRI
Ended in 1978 (southern Ont.)
n/a
2006
5 years
1981
10 years
2005
Continuous, centrally managed
1998
Continuous, individually managed
1992 (planned)
• Live trees: 5 years • Soil/forest floor: 10 years
1985
• Decline index/mortality: 1 year • Other measurements: 5 to 20 years
Ontario Forest Resource Inventory
SOLRIS Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System
NFI National Forest Inventory
VSP Vegetation Sampling Protocol
ELC Ecological Land Classification
G&Y Ontario Growth and Yield Program
OFBN Ontario Forest Biomonitoring Network
Conclusions:
• We have diverse resource management, conservation and planning needs which require vegetation inventories. • Challenge: • Collecting base information that meets diverse needs • Sampling the landscape comprehensively • Through time • Spatially: creating wall-to-wall inventories
• Opportunities: • Many players compiling inventories • Standardized protocol that meets our needs
• Technology
Questions?
What is a vegetation inventory? • Point-in-time surveys of vegetation • May involve compilation of existing information, or acquisition of new information • Determine and record the location and/or condition of vegetation: • Presence, distribution, status, class
Nature Conservancy of Canada
Archives of Ontario
SSIB
SSIB
Issue: Classification
http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Forestry