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Abstract
The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program strives to make its data publicly available in a format that is easy to use and understand most commonly accessed through online tools such as EVALIDator and Forest Inventory Data Online. This requires a certain amount of data reduction. Using a common data request concerning the resource of southern yellow pine (SYP), we demonstrate how results may vary depending on the particular data reduction approach employed. We used the loblolly-shortleaf pine forest-type group (FTG) and the longleaf-slash pine FTG as surrogates for SYP. The volume of our four target species (loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, slash pine, and longleaf pine) in these two FTGs was 98.2 billion cubic feet, but this was only 84 percent of the total volume for the target species in all FTGs. In addition, many unwanted species were included by using total volume in the two FTGs as a surrogate for SYP.
Parent Publication
Citation
Rose, Anita K.; Rosson Jr., James F.; Beresford, Helen. 2015. Consequences of data reduction in the FIA database: a case study with southern yellow pine. In: Stanton, Sharon M.; Christensen, Glenn A., comps. 2015. Pushing boundaries: new directions in inventory techniques and applications: Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) symposium 2015. 2015 December 8–10; Portland, Oregon. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-931. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: 376-380.
