Forest Inventory and Analysis Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands
Photo Credit
Ivan Vicens
The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) collects, analyzes, reports, and distributes data about the Nation’s forests: how much forest exists, who owns it, what condition it's in, where it’s located, and how it's changed. FIA is managed by the Research and Development organization within the USDA Forest Service in cooperation with State and Private Forestry and National Forest Systems. The IITF co-conducts the FIA program for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands together with the Southern Research Station.
IITF co-conducts the FIA program for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands together with the Southern Research Station. Related research seeks to:
- Reduce uncertainties in tropical forest carbon fluxes that are related to tree demography and functional traits, past land use, soil parent material, C-N-P stoichiometry, and climate.
- Characterize how tree functional traits relate to forest biodiversity and nutrient cycles.
- Learn how past spatial patterns of tropical deforestation and regrowth affect biodiversity.
- Learn how species introductions and nutrient enrichment affect tree species diversity and forest ecosystem function.
- Map forest ecosystem attributes with remote sensing, including: height, age, and diversity of native and introduced species, past land use, successional stage, phenology, productivity and species composition.
FIA Contact for Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands
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Person
Eileen Helmer, PhD
Research Ecologisthttps://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/eileen.helmer
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Program
https://research.fs.usda.gov/programs/fia -
Center or Group
https://research.fs.usda.gov/srs/centers/fiaStation
Related Publications
- Xiaolin Zhu, Eileen Helmer, Feng Gao, Desheng Liu, Jin Chen, Michael A. Lefsky. 2016. A flexible spatiotemporal method for fusing satellite images with different resolutions
- Eileen Helmer, H.E. Erickson, Thomas Brandeis, Ariel Lugo. 2014. Controls on fallen leaf chemistry and forest floor element masses in native and novel forests across a tropical island
- Thomas S. Ruzycki, Jay Benner, Shannon M. Voggesser, Barbara P. Scobie, Eileen Helmer, Courtenay Park, David W. Fanning, Seepersad Ramnarine. 2012. Detailed maps of tropical forest types are within reach: forest tree communities for Trinidad and Tobago mapped with multiseason Landsat and multiseason fine-resolution imagery
- Thomas Brandeis, Eileen Helmer, Humfredo Marcano-Vega, Ariel Lugo. 2009. Climate shapes the novel plant communities that form after deforestation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
- Eileen Helmer, Thomas Brandeis, Ariel Lugo, Todd Kennaway. 2008. Factors influencing spatial pattern in tropical forest clearance and stand age: Implications for carbon storage and species diversity.
- Todd Kennaway, Eileen Helmer, Michael Lefsky, Thomas Brandeis, Kirk Sherrill. 2009. Mapping land cover and estimating forest structure using satellite imagery and coarse resolution lidar in the Virgin Islands
Last updated April 30, 2024