Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Temporal change in fragmentation of continental US forests

  • Report
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Changes in forest ecosystem function and condition arise from changes in forest fragmentation. Previous studies estimated forest fragmentation for the continental United States (US). In this study, new temporal land-cover data from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) were used to estimate changes in forest fragmentation at multiple scales for the continental US. Early and late dates for the land-cover change data were ca. 1992 and ca. 2001. Forest density was used as a multi-scale index of fragmentation by measuring the proportion of forest in neighborhoods ranging in size from 2.25 to 5314.41 ha. The multi-scale forest density maps were classified using thresholds of 40% (patch), 60% (dominant), and 90% (interior) to analyze temporal change of fragmentation. The loss of dominant and interior forest showed distinct scale effects, whereas loss of patch forest was much less scale-dependent. Dominant forest loss doubled from the smallest to the largest spatial scale, while interior forest loss increased by approximately 80% from the smallest to the second largest spatial scale, then decreased somewhat. At the largest spatial scale, losses of dominant and interior forest were 5 and 10%, respectively, of their ca. 1992 amounts. In contrast, patch forest loss increased by only 25% from the smallest to largest spatial scale. These results indicate that continental US forests were sensitive to forest loss because of their already fragmented state. Forest loss would have had to occur in an unlikely spatial pattern in order to avoid the proportionately greater impact on dominant and interior forest at larger spatial scales.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  • Beaulac MN, Reckhow KH (1982) An examination of land use––nutrient export relationships. Water Resour Bull 18:1013–1024

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Daubenmire R (1978) Plant geography. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Eyre FH (1980) Forest cover types of the United States and Canada. Society of American Foresters, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO (Food, Agriculture Organization) (2007) State of the world’s forests. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley JA, DeFries R, Asner GP, Barford C, Bonan G, Carpenter SR et al (2005) Global consequences of land use. Science 309:570–574. doi:10.1126/science.1111772

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Foster CHW, Foster DR (1999) Thinking in forest time: a strategy for the Massachusetts forest. Harvard Forest Paper No. 24. Harvard University, Petersham, Massachusetts

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster DR, Motzkin G, Slater B (1998) Land-use history as long-term broad-scale disturbance: regional forest dynamics in central New England. Ecosystems (NY, Print) 1:96–119. doi:10.1007/s100219900008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frink CR (1991) Estimating nutrient exports to estuaries. J Environ Qual 20:717–724

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner RH, Urban DL (2007) Neutral models for testing landscape hypotheses. Landsc Ecol 22:15–29. doi:10.1007/s10980-006-9011-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harper KA, MacDonald SA, Burton PJ, Chen J, Brosofske KD, Saunders SC et al (2005) Edge influence on forest structure and composition in fragmented landscapes. Conserv Biol 19:768–782. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00045.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayden BP (1998) Ecosystem feedbacks on climate at the landscape scale. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 353:5–18. doi:10.1098/rstb.1998.0186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilman GE Jr, Strittholt JR, Slosser NC, Dellasala DA (2002) Forest fragmentation of the conterminous United States: assessing forest intactness through road density and spatial characteristics. Bioscience 52:411–422. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0411:FFOTCU]2.0.CO;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Homer CG, Gallant A (unpublished) Partitioning the conterminous United States in mapping zones for Landsat TM land cover mapping. U.S. Geological Survey, Sioux Falls, SD. available at: [URL] http://landcover.usgs.gov/pdf/homer.pdf (last viewed 08/29/2008)

  • Homer C, Dewitz J, Fry J, Coan M, Hossain N, Larson C et al (2007) Completion of the 2001 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 73:337–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Koper N, Schmiegelow FKK (2006) A multi-scaled analysis of avian response to habitat amount and fragmentation in the Canadian dry mixed grass prairie. Landsc Ecol 21:1045–1059

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall CH, Pielke RA Sr, Steyaert LT, Willard DA (2004) The impact of anthropogenic land-cover change on the Florida peninsula sea breezes and warm season sensible weather. Mon Weather Rev 132:28–52. doi :10.1175/1520-0493(2004)132<0028:TIOALC>2.0.CO;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mladenoff DJ, White MA, Pastor J, Crow TR (1993) Comparing spatial pattern in unaltered old-growth and disturbed forest landscapes. Ecol Appl 3:294–306. doi:10.2307/1941832

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neel MC, McGarigal K, Cushman SA (2004) Behavior of class-level landscape metrics across gradients of class aggregation and area. Landsc Ecol 19:435–455. doi:10.1023/B:LAND.0000030521.19856.cb

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pielke RA, Marland G, Betts RA, Change TN, Eastman JL, Niles JO et al (2002) The influence of land-use change and landscape dynamics on the climate system: relevance to climate-change policy beyond the radiative effect of greenhouse gases. Philos Trans R Soc Lond A 360:1705–1719. doi:10.1098/rsta.2002.1027

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pielke RA, Adegoke J, Beltrán-Przekurat A, Hiemstra CA, Lin J, Nair US et al (2007) An overview of regional land-use and land-cover impacts on rainfall. Tellus 59B:587–601

    Google Scholar 

  • Prestemon JP, Abt RC (2002) The southern timber market. J For 100:16–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Riitters KH, Wickham JD, O’Neill RV, Jones KB, Smith ER (2000) Global-scale patterns of forest fragmentation. Conserv Ecol 4(2):3. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol4/iss2/art3

    Google Scholar 

  • Riitters KH, Wickham JD, O’Neill R, Jones KB, Smith ER, Coulston JW et al (2002) Fragmentation of continental United States forests. Ecosystems (NY, Print) 5:815–822. doi:10.1007/s10021-002-0209-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riitters KH, Wickham JD, Coulston JW (2004) Use of road maps in national assessments of forest fragmentation in the United States. Ecol Soc 9(2):13. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art13

  • Riitters KH, Wickham JD, Wade TG (2006) Evaluating ecoregions for sampling and mapping land-cover patterns. Photogramm Eng Remote Sensing 72:781–788

    Google Scholar 

  • Riitters KH, Vogt P, Soille P, Kazak J, Estreguil C (2007) Neutral model analysis of landscape patterns from mathematical morphology. Landsc Ecol 22:1033–1043. doi:10.1007/s10980-007-9089-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riitters KH, Wickham JD, Wade TG (2009) An indicator of forest dynamics using a shifting landscape mosaic. Ecol Indic 9:107–117. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.02.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson SK, Thompson FRIII, Donovan TM, Whitehead DR, Faaborg R (1995) Regional forest fragmentation and nesting success of migratory songbirds. Science 267:1987–1990. doi:10.1126/science.267.5206.1987

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson N, Decoster J (2000) Forest fragmentation: implications for sustainable private forests. J For 98:4–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Sendak PE, Abt RC, Turner RJ (2003) Timber supply projections for northern New England and New York: integrating a market perspective. J Appl For 20:175–185

    Google Scholar 

  • USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) (1986) Urban hydrology for small watersheds. Technical Release 55 (TR-55), Natural Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Engineering Division. US Dept of Agriculture, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogelmann JE, Howard SM, Yang L, Larson CR, Wylie BK, Van Driel JN (2001) Completion of the 1990s National Land Cover Data Set for the Conterminous United States from Landsat Thematic Mapper data and ancillary data sources. Photogramm Eng Remote Sensing 67:650–662

    Google Scholar 

  • Weathers KC, Lovett GM, Pickett STA (2001) Forest edges as nutrient and pollutant concentrators: potential synergisms between fragmentation, forest canopies, and the atmosphere. Conserv Biol 15:1506–1514. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2001.01090.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker RH (1975) Communities and ecosystems, 2nd edn. MacMillan Publishing Co, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickham JD, Riitters KH, Wade TG, Jones KB (2005) Evaluating the relative roles of ecological regions and land-cover composition for guiding establishment of nutrient criteria. Landsc Ecol 20:791–798. doi:10.1007/s10980-005-0067-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wickham JD, Riitters KH, Wade TG, Coulston JW (2007) Temporal change in forest fragmentation at multiple scales. Landsc Ecol 22:481–489. doi:10.1007/s10980-006-9054-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams M (1982) Clearing the United States forests: pivotal years 1810–1860. J Hist Geogr 8:12–28. doi:10.1016/0305-7488(82)90242-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WRI (World Resources Institute) (2000) Pilot analysis of global ecosystems: forest ecosystems. World Resources Institute, Washington DC, USA

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Office of Research and Development (ORD), funded and performed the research described. This manuscript has been subjected to the EPA’s peer and administrative review and has been approved for publication.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Environmental Protection Agency (E243-05), National Exposure Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27711, USA

    James D. Wickham & Timothy G. Wade

  2. US Forest Service, Southern Research Station, 3041 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA

    Kurt H. Riitters

  3. US Geological Survey, Center for Earth Resource Observation Science (EROS), Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Collin Homer

Authors
  1. James D. Wickham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kurt H. Riitters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Timothy G. Wade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Collin Homer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James D. Wickham.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wickham, J.D., Riitters, K.H., Wade, T.G. et al. Temporal change in fragmentation of continental US forests. Landscape Ecol 23, 891–898 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-008-9258-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-008-9258-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation