Southern Research Station

Title: Forest health monitoring: 2003 national technical report

Author: Coulston, John W.; Ambrose, Mark J.; Riitters, Kurt H.; Conkling, Barbara L.; Smith, William D.

Date: 2005

Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-85. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 97 p.

Station ID: GTR-SRS-085

Description: The Forest Health Monitoring ProgramÂ’s annual national reports present results from forest health data analyses focusing on a national perspective. The Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests are used as a reporting framework. This report has five main sections. The first contains introductory material. The next three sections, “Landscape Structure,” “Abiotic and Biotic Factors,” and “Forest Conditions,” contain results of data analyses. Some of the indicators discussed use data collected from ground plots. These include ozone bioindicator plants; changes in trees (crown condition, mortality, and stand age); and soils (forest floor depth). Other indicators or indicator groups use data about insects and diseases, and remotely sensed or ground-based data about distance to roads, forest edge, interior forest, drought, fire, and air pollution (sulfates, nitrates, and ozone). Identifying patterns and observing possible relationships is an important part of national level analysis and reporting. The fifth section “Integrated Look at Forest Health Indicators” presents results of analyses designed to evaluate whether or not individual indicators or linear combinations of indicators discriminate between crowns in poor condition and crowns not in poor condition.

Keywords: Assessment, bioindicators, criteria and indicators, fragmentation, monitoring, mortality.

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Citation

Coulston, John W.; Ambrose, Mark J.; Riitters, Kurt H.; Conkling, Barbara L.; Smith, William D.  2005.  Forest health monitoring: 2003 national technical report.   Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-85. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 97 p.