Title: Northeastern Regional Forest Fragmentation Assessment: Rationale, Methods, and Comparisons With Other Studies

Author: Lister, Andrew; Riemann, Rachel; Lister, Tonya; McWilliams, Will

Year: 2005

Publication: In: Proceedings of the fifth annual forest inventory and analysis symposium; 2003 November 18-20; New Orleans, LA. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-69. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. 222p.

Abstract: Forest fragmentation is thought to impact many biotic and abiotic processes important to ecosystem function. We assessed forest fragmentation in 13 Northeastern States to gain a greater understanding of the trends in and status of this region?s forests. We reclassified and then statistically filtered and updated classified Landsat imagery from the early 1990s, and devised analysis routines that allowed for automated processing of large areas. We discuss the rationale for the study and the choices made in data set preparation and analysis routines, describe the methods used, and compare our methods with those of other coarse-scale fragmentation studies.