Use of forest modeling to project acid rain effects
The research program will use both the empirical data from the FORAST project and the forest growth model to examine the influences of anthropogenic stress on forest development. Although previous applications of the FORET model represented a conceptual advance in understanding forest responses to air pollution, a drawback was the lack of reliable estimates of species responses to regional-scale atmospheric stress. Literature available at that time provided only broad ranges of response levels and variations among species. The FORAST project is expected to provide a measure of growth rate changes for tree species, which will form a more realistic basis for developing a range of growth responses in the FORET model. Thus, the stress parameters will be tied more closely to observed changes in diameter increment than were the parameters of previous modeling efforts. A validation study will be performed for the FORET simulator under stressed and nonstressed conditions. Projected diameter increments will be compared with observed ones by species and canopy class, using tree cores taken from a study designed to quantify competitive interactions in a forest stand. The model will then be used to project the effects of stress on forest structure over the next 100 years, assuming various hypotheses of stress effects. The current hypothesis to be examined is that present rates of growth will continue for the next 100 years. The Forest Inventory data of the USDA Forest Service will be used to verify that within each region the model is initiated correctly. Model output will be classified into forest-type groups, and a map will be produced of the projected vegetation types of the northeastern US under the stated hypothesis. Projected yield tables can serve an input to forest economic models. 18 references.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 6165848
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8411137-3; ON: DE85005251
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: National acid precipitation assessment program meeting, Asheville, NC, USA, 13 Nov 1984
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
TREES
GROWTH
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NAPAP
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
PLANTS
RAIN
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