Treesearch
Modeling understory vegetation and its response to fire [Chapter 15]
| Authors: | Donald McKenzie, Crystal Raymond, Samuel A. Cushman |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Type: | Book Chapter |
| Station: | Rocky Mountain Research Station |
| Source: | In: Millspaugh, J.; Thompson, F. R., III, eds. Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes. Burlington, MA: Academic Press. p. 391-414. |
Download (PDF 1.02 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/52870.pdf
Abstract
The understory is an oft-neglected element in landscape modeling. Most landscape models focus on the dominant vegetation and how it responds over successional time to climate, competitive interactions, and disturbance (Keane et al. 2004, Cary et al. 2006). Even forest stand-level models rarely consider understory components other than seedlings, saplings, and downed wood (Pacala et al. 1993, He and Mladenoff 1999, Gratzer et al. 2004), except in special cases such as the need for estimating surface fuels for fire modeling (Rebain 2006).