Oral Abstract Details

Author(s):
Stella J.M. Cousins1, Jeffrey S. Ward2, and Mary Tyrrell3

Affiliation:
1. Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies 2. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station 3. Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Global Institute of Sustainable Fo

Presentation Type:
Oral

Topic Area:
Monitoring and predicting human influences on landscapes and ecosystems

Abstract Text:
The goal of this project is to identify a set of key indicators of forest ecosystem health in an increasingly fragmented landscape, test the reliability of those key indicators, and create protocols through which those indicators can periodically be checked to monitor forest health trends in the forest ecosystem. Throughout the world, forests are being rapidly converted to other land uses and land covers; the Highlands region of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania is a region that exemplifies such a transition. The Connecticut Highlands Project employed a comprehensive forest inventory in combination with recent land cover analysis to understand the impacts of an increasingly fragmented landscape on the forest ecosystem. We collected data on woody and herbaceous vegetation, various abiotic landscape characteristics, and avian diversity on forty plots distributed randomly in adjacent subwatersheds of the Housatonic River. These plots were classified along a gradient of forest continuity as core, perforated, or edge forests. We found that cover of invasive shrub species was greater in the watershed with more fragmented forests. Further, cover of invasive shrubs was significantly greater in edge forests as compared to both perforated and core locations. Bird species abundance was lower in the less fragmented watershed; we are continuing analysis of bird observations to investigate patterns related to forest configuration and distribution of indicator species. Preliminary analysis also suggests that some environmental characteristics were comparable across watersheds and landscape fragmentation categories. For example, disease prevalence and standing dead basal area, commonly used to identify forest health issues, showed similar distributions in these categories. Next steps in the investigation will focus on identifying major predictors of ecosystem health for forests at the urban margin. We expect that some of the measures will be more sensitive to fragmentation impacts than others, and we will continue to focus on these specialized predictors. Following our analysis, a revised measurement protocol will be implemented in a second watershed pair in 2010. We found evaluating ecosystem health at the landscape scale is a challenge where forests are increasingly interspersed with unforested areas. Tested methods for monitoring fragmented forests, which we aim to contribute with this project, will be critical to understanding ecosystem processes in the exurban environment. Funding for this project was provided as part of a USFS State & Private Forestry Redesign Grant. In addition to the authors, collaborators included Audubon Connecticut, University of Connecticut, Connecticut DEP – Division of Forestry, and White Memorial Foundation.