Integrating P3 Data Into P2 Analyses: What is the Added Value

Abstract

The Forest Inventory and Analysis and Forest Health Monitoring Programs of the USDA Forest Service are integrating field procedures for measuring their networks of plots throughout the United States. These plots are now referred to as Phase 2 (P2) and Phase 3 (P3) plots, respectively, and 1 out of every 16 P2 plots will also be a P3 plot. Mensurational methods will be identical on both types of plots, as will the procedures used for coding tree damages. Measurements of crown dieback, crown density, and foliage transparency; and measurements related to soils, lichens, and ozone indicators will distinguish P3 tree data from P2 tree data. Questions arise as to what value the unique P3 data add to reporting forest health conditions, and whether the P3 attributes can be extended to the greater number of P2 plots and forest landscape. This paper explores the latter question by showing how representative the P3 plots are of the forest as depicted by P2 plots. In empirical analyses of P2 and P3 data recently collected in Georgia, the P3 data were treated as a one-sixteenth subset of the P2 data. Stratifications of the data by forest-type group demonstrated that P3 plots were representative of the predominant forest-type groups and spatial distributions showed how the two types of plot data were comparable at different levels of resolution.

Citation

Steinman, James R. 2001. Integrating P3 Data Into P2 Analyses: What is the Added Value. In: Reams, Gregory A.; McRoberts, Ronald E.; Van Deusen, Paul C., eds. 2001. Proceedings of the second annual Forest Inventory and Analysis symposium; 2000 October 17-18; Salt Lake City, UT. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-47. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 137-140