Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

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Persistent identifier:: 856665355

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts ; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856665355

Language:: English

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 856669164

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Scope:: XIV, 912 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856669164

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Signature of the source:: ZS 312(28,7,1)

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Editor:: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Commission of Photographic and Remote Sensing Data

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: [FA-2 GLOBAL MONITORING (3)]

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: A PROPOSED DESIGN FOR MONITORING CHANGES IN VEGETATION HEALTH AND VIGOR IN ALASKA. Vernon J. LaBau

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

A PROPOSED DESIGN FOR MONITORING CHANGES IN VEGETATION HEALTH AND VIGOR IN ALASKA Vernon J. LaBau Project Leader Anchorage Forestry Sciences Laboratory 201 East 9th Avenue, Suite 303 Anchorage, Alaska 99501 ABSTRACT There is evidence that much of the Alaska flora are sensitive to the impact of global climate change. This paper proposes a methodology for monitoring the health and vigor of Alaska vegetation to seek evidence of global climate changes. The monitoring concept, based, in part, on a system developed for assessing vegetation biomass and plant composition, would be applied in the boreal and temperate forests of interior and coastal Alaska. To capture vegetation change in these sensitive forests, it is important that a monitoring system be established in Alaska soon. BACKGROUND During the past decade, the scientific, social and political arenas have become increasingly concerned about the worldwide health of forests. But only recently have acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion and atmospheric carbon loading become targets of significant public attention and scientific study (Office of the President, 1989). As concern grew, more scientists began examining reductions in forest area and changes in forest health for evidence of global climate change. The scientific community is particularly interested in establishing programs for monitoring the health and vigor of vegetation. Generally these programs are envisioned as observation and measurement of vegetation changes in systematically located sites. The sites would be visited initially to determine the current health and vigor of the vegetation. Then, periodic visits would be made to determine any changes in health and vigor. The studies would be designed to establish a significant relationship between observed changes and whatever was causing the changes. If the changes are related to climatic shifts or some form of atmospheric change, then, hopefully, statistical analysis will correlate plant changes to global climate shifts. For example, it is hoped that statistical relationships may be shown through evaluation of chemical analyses of vegetation and soils and climatic or atmospheric changes. Arctic vegetation is expected to react early to global climate change because harsh growing condition cause many "indicator plants" to exist in a naturally stressed condition. If stress is reduced, for example, by climate warming, the plants should show increased growth. If some other condition becomes a factor, such as acid rain, those stressed indicator plants may disappear from the ecosystem. For this reason, it's important that a monitoring program be established soon in Alaska. However, global climate change may not be the only factor affecting vegetation change. Therefore, studies must be designed to capture other possible relationships as effectively as possible, given limitations of money, personnel and time. Our monitoring design interfaces with the Global Change Research Program (GCRP) of the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Stations (USDA, 1990). The GCRP emphasizes better understanding and management of interactions between climate change, air chemistry and ecosystems processes and productivity in four ecosystems chosen for study. GCRP integrates process and small-scale response research with watershed- and landscape- level studies. Our monitoring design also is directly connected with work being done by the Atmospheric Deposition/Vegetation Survey Research Development and Application Program of the US Forest Service in Triangle Park, NC (Barnard, 1990). A sound time-series plant monitoring program must begin with baseline information on health and vigor. Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Research Work Units of the US Forest Service have a nationwide set of baseline data and information on forest and rangelands that appears to apply to such a study. Since enactment of the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928, Forest research (formerly called Forest Survey) teams in the United States have characterized forest vegetation at sample plot locations and extrapolated this information to the larger population. Initially, this was done primarily for the purpose of estimating timber areas, volume, growth and mortality. Passage of the Resources Planning Act (RPA) in 1974 by the US Congress empowered Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) research units to evaluate all vegetation on forest and rangelands. Since then, many FIA units have developed methodologies for evaluating all vegetation within sample areas.

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