Life on the Edge: Structural Analysis of Forest Edges to Aid Urban Management
Abstract
The accelerating expansion of agricultural and urban areas fragments and degrades forests and their capacity to provide essential ecosystem services while increasing physiological stress and mortality rates of trees growing near forest edges. Previous studies have documented that edges are hotter and drier than forest interiors and trees nearer the edge grow slower. However, the physical structure of a forest’s canopy may serve to mitigate to these effects. This study quantifies forest fragmentation across the Central Hardwoods Region (CHR; containing Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana) and characterizes structural differences between the canopies of forest edges and forest interiors. Importantly, we distinguish between edges that neighbor developed land and agricultural lands since these landcover types may impose distinct effects on forest structure. We characterized forest canopy structure in a subset of the CHR region using the 2016-2020 Indiana 3DEP Lidar Program data. Our findings indicate edge forest (forests within 30m of an edge) makes up 29.8% of the total forest in our study extent, with urban and agricultural edges accounting for 17.8% and 72.8% of the edge edges in the region, respectively. Analysis of 15 separate structural metrics derived from aerial laser scanning (ALS) showed no significant structural differences between developed and agricultural edge canopies but did find differences between structure of canopies in forest cores and those in forest edges of any kind. As developed and agricultural lands increase so too will forest fragmentation and the creation of new forest edges. If there are no significant differences between forest edge types, then we could begin to treat edges without distinction. This could lead to simplified management practices for foresters and urban foresters alike to protect and preserve forest fragments.
Degree
M.Sc.
Advisors
Hardiman, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Agriculture|Remote sensing|Forestry|Land Use Planning|Wood sciences
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