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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2006
- Title: Forest canopy recovery from the 1938 hurricane and subsequent salvage damage measured with airborne LiDAR
- Primary Author: John Weishampel (University of Central Florida)
- Additional Authors: J.Bryan Blair (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center); Amanda Cooper (University of Central Florida); Jason Drake (University of Central Florida); David Foster (Harvard University); Michelle Hofton (University of Maryland); Glenn Motzkin (University of Massachusetts - Amherst )
- Abstract:
The structure of a forest canopy often reflects its disturbance history. Such signatures of past disturbances or legacies can influence how the ecosystem functions across broad spatio-temporal scales. The 1938 hurricane and ensuing salvage operations which swept through New England represent the most recent large, infrequent disturbance (LID) in this region. Though devastating (downing ~70% of the timber at Harvard Forest), the disturbance was not indiscriminate; it left behind a heterogeneous landscape comprised of different levels of canopy damage. We analyzed large-footprint LiDAR, from the Prospect Hill tract at Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts, to assess whether damage to the forest structure from the hurricane and timber extraction could be discerned after ~65 years. Differences in LiDAR-derived measures of canopy height and vertical diversity were a function of the degree of damage from the 1938 hurricane and the predominant tree species which is, in part, a function of land use history. Higher levels of damage corresponded to a shorter canopy that produced a less even vertical distribution of return from the ground to the top. In addition, differences in canopy topography as revealed by spatial autocorrelation of canopy top heights were found among the damage classes. Less disturbed stands were characterized by lower levels of local autocorrelation for canopy height and higher levels of vertical diversity of LiDAR returns. These differences in canopy structure reveal that the forest tract has not completely recovered from the 1938 LID and has implications regarding arboreal habitat.
- Research Category: Historical and Retrospective Studies
