Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION
MISSOULA,MT 59812
Performing Department
COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION
Non Technical Summary
Sound management of forest resources demands a quantitative appreciation of the distribution and dynamics of coarse woody debris (CWD). CWD is an important component of the structure and function of many forests of the western U.S., and has a material impact on regeneration patterns and the utilization of forest ecosystems by wildlife. Also, CWD often constitutes an appreciable proportion of total forest biomass and is thus an important factor in forest carbon budgets and carbon sequestration. In Montana and throughout the inland northwest of North America, CWD is important in determining wildfire risk and behavior. For these reasons, scientists and managers need accurate and practicable sampling strategies for CWD survey. The development of such strategies has proven challenging due to the inherent variability of CWD within and across forest stands and to the difficulty and cost of measuring the volume, biomass, or carbon content of individual CWD particles. There
is a need to develop more efficient strategies for CWD density, volume, biomass, and carbon inventories. The project will develop the statistical foundations of multi-stage and multi-phase LIS and will collect data on CWD distributions across and within stand types, and the efficiency and accuracy of CWD measurement protocols. The analytical investigations and field work will provide the basis necessary to evaluate the accuracy and cost of different CWD sampling strategies. This will provide information of direct practical utility to managers and researchers seeking to quantify CWD dynamics in forest ecosystems.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The specific objectives of this research project are to: 1. Investigate the analytic properties of different multi-stage and multi-phase LIS strategies for CWD inventory. Information needs and variance formulae will be identified for strategies that distribute measurement costs differentially across and within particles and transects, and that incorporate various random and systematic sub-selection protocols. 2. Assess empirical relationships between various CWD attributes at the particle level and in aggregate at the transect level. Variances and correlations between attributes (e.g., total CWD length and volume) will be estimated for different stand types. 3. Evaluate the relative cost and precision of candidate multi-phase and multi-stage LIS strategies relative to single-stage LIS and other CWD sampling methods. This will include assessments of the operational feasibility of different sampling strategies and the magnitudes of potential measurement or implementation
errors. The project will also serve as a course of research and training for a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science degree in forest biometrics. Peer-reviewed publications are expected from the project.
Project Methods
The research objectives will be addressed in 3 phases. Phase 1 will comprise statistical research on the proposed methods. A review of the relevant literature on multi-stage and multi-phase sampling will be made, and estimators and variance formulas for different CWD sampling strategies will be derived. This will identify candidate sampling strategies and the empirical data needed to determine their relative accuracies. The College of Forestry and Conservation (CFC), University of Montana, will provide the needed facilities and materials. Phase 2 will consist of preliminary field work, analysis, and the design of the experimental procedure. Field work will first identify suitable research sites. Following site selection, pilot data will be collected on the variability of CWD attributes across and within different stand types. Required equipment will include measurement tapes, calipers, and GPS consoles. The CFC maintains some equipment but additional supplies will be
needed. Analysis of the phase 2 data will provide measures of variation and association for different CWD attributes (i.e., density, length, volume, and mass). Combined with phase 1 work, this will yield information on the relative estimation accuracy of different strategies. This and subsequent components of the project will require computer equipment and software licenses. The final component of phase 2 is the design of the experimental procedure to evaluate the precision and cost of select multi-phase or multi-stage strategies. The experimental procedure will involve intensive sampling in each study site. Phase 2 field data will help determine how sampling units should be distributed so as to maximize the accuracy of the estimates of precision for each sampling strategy. Strategies will include, at a minimum, LIS with full measurement of CWD particles for volume and LIS with only counts of the CWD elements crossed by the transect. Along with preliminary field results, the
experimental design will be presented at a conference or technical meeting. Phase 3 of the project will incorporate data collection, analysis, and reporting. As the designed experiment is conducted, CWD data will be collected on all particles encountered on line transects or at sample points. The time required to complete the different sampling protocols will also be recorded. The data obtained will permit estimation of (i) variability in different CWD attributes across stand types and study sites; (ii) pairwise correlations between CWD attributes; (iii) mean costs associated with the measurement protocols specific to each attribute. Statistical analyses will indicate the potential gains in accuracy associated with different multi-phase and multi-stage LIS strategies. Data will provide estimates of the precision of LIS strategies with different allocations of sampling effort (e.g., measurement of select CWD particles on all transects or of all particles on select transects) and of the
costs (in the form of time) associated with these allocations. Results of the project will be prepared for peer-reviewed journals and presented at a regional or national conference.