Utah\u27s forest resources, 2000-2005

FIA is responsible for periodic assessments of the status and trends of the renewable resources of America’s forests. Fundamental to the accomplishment of these assessments are the State-by-State resource inventories, which are now conducted on an annual basis. This report summarizes the results, interpretations, and future significance of Utah’s annual inventory. The organization and layout of this report begins with a short introduction of FIA’s annual inventory system and then a detailed description of its inventory methods. After an overview of the report tables, the bulk of the report is contained in the “Forest Resources” and “Current Issues” and “FIA Indicators” sections, and finishes with a discussion of Utah’s Timber Products. The “Forest Resources” section is outlined similar to past periodic reports for ease of comparisons. The “Current Issues” and “FIA Indicators” sections cover topics considered pertinent to Utah’s forests relative to the information FIA collects, and points to other related or more in-depth studies and research

DES Y1 Results: validating cosmological parameter estimation using simulated Dark Energy Surveys

We use mock galaxy survey simulations designed to resemble the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 (DES Y1) data to validate and inform cosmological parameter estimation. When similar analysis tools are applied to both simulations and real survey data, they provide powerful validation tests of the DES Y1 cosmological analyses presented in companion papers. We use two suites of galaxy simulations produced using different methods, which therefore provide independent tests of our cosmological parameter inference. The cosmological analysis we aim to validate is presented in DES Collaboration et al. (2017) and uses angular two-point correlation functions of galaxy number counts and weak lensing shear, as well as their cross-correlation, in multiple redshift bins. While our constraints depend on the specific set of simulated realisations available, for both suites of simulations we find that the input cosmology is consistent with the combined constraints from multiple simulated DES Y1 realizations in the Ωm − σ8 plane. For one of the suites, we are able to show with high confidence that any biases in the inferred S8 = σ8(Ωm/0.3)0.5 and Ωm are smaller than the DES Y1 1 − σ uncertainties. For the other suite, for which we have fewer realizations, we are unable to be this conclusive; we infer a roughly 60 per cent (70 per cent) probability that systematic bias in the recovered Ωm (S8) is sub-dominant to the DES Y1 uncertainty. As cosmological analyses of this kind become increasingly more precise, validation of parameter inference using survey simulations will be essential to demonstrate robustness.ISSN:0035-8711ISSN:1365-296