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Regional Studies
Our goal is develop a predictive understanding of the social, economic, and
environmental factors that drive land cover change in the Southern Appalachians
and the ecological consequences of those changes in landscape pattern
for regional carbon (C) cycles and for terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. We will
do this with an integrated program that recognizes humans as an integral part of
the Southern Appalachian landscape. We combine the long-term perspective of
change in the vegetation and in C stores since the Pleistocene with recent
changes in land cover and modeling of human decisions regarding land use to
understand past and likely future drivers of changes in landscape pattern in the
region. We consider the effects of these landscape changes on regional C
storage and rates of flux and on the biotat of a region that is characterized
by high biodiversity. The proposed research has five specific objectives:
(1) understand the role of fire in governing vegetation and C cycling changes in
the Southern Appalachians since the late Pleistocene; (2) document the history
of land cover change in the region during the past 50 years, focusing on
changes that have occurred in the Little Tennessee and French Broad watersheds
(Figure 6); (3) identify and model economic and social factors structuring
landscape pattern in these watersheds; (4) document and model the ecological
consequences of land cover change for regional C pools and fluxes; and (5)
predict effects of land cover change on native tree, herb, and bird assemblages
as well as assemblages of stream benthic invertebrates and fishes.
Southern Forest Resource Assessment
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