Do coarse resolution U.S. presettlement land survey records adequately represent the spatial pattern of individual tree species? |
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Authors: | Yi-Chen Wang Chris P S Larsen |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Geography, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14261, USA |
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Abstract: | Presettlement land survey records (PLSRs) are a valuable and unique source of information for the reconstruction of presettlement
forest patterns. The purpose of this study was to determine whether coarsely resolved PLSRs are adequate to characterize the
spatial patterns of individual tree species over large areas. The General Land Office Survey records of the PLSRs of Minnesota
were used and species selected in the analysis were based on their abundances and degrees of clustering. A geostatistical
procedure was developed to analyze observations of bearing-tree point-locations, at progressively coarser resolutions from
1×1 mile to 24×24 miles, to create spatially continuous probability surfaces of species occurrences across the landscape.
Statistical and visual analyses of the geostatistical predictions indicated that coarsely resolved PLSRs, as coarse as 24×24 miles,
can adequately represent the spatial pattern of individual species over large areas. Mean errors in predictions increased
as more coarsely resolved data were used, primarily in response to the decreased abundance of a species and minorly in response
to the degree of spatial clustering of a species. The results indicate that coarsely resolved township-level data of 6×6 miles
can be used for presettlement vegetation reconstruction of large areas of several counties. |
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Keywords: | Forest landscape Geostatistics GLO survey Interpolation Minnesota Presettlement vegetation Scale Spatial resolution |
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