11 research outputs found
Using settlement vegetation data for paleoclimate and carbon modeling: Preliminary results of the PalEON project
<p>Ecosystem modeling can be improved by testing聽assumptions about pre-settlement vegetation. PalEON聽combines historical data with modeling tools, developing聽robust benchmarks for community structure in the聽northeastern United States. By building vegetation models聽to be used with paleo-datasets we help understand drivers聽of ecosystem change over the last 2000 years in the聽northeastern United States, improving ecosystem models.</p>
<p>Building a detailed map of pre-settlement forest聽composition from Public Lands Office (PLO) survey data is聽an initial step. We present a workflow and preliminary聽results showing pre-settlement stem density and basal area聽for hard and softwoods in Minnesota and Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Preliminary results suggest differences between聽Ramankutty and Foley (1999) and the PLO data ands聽provide baseline data for regional biomass estimates. 聽</p