Forest Sciences Commons^™

Forest Fragmentation Patterns In Maine Watersheds And Prediction Of Visible Crown Diameter In Recent Undisturbed Forest, Brianne Elizabeth Looze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extensive harvesting practices coupled with major ownership change have led to increasing fragmentation of Maine’s forest, a reduction from larger, contiguous mature forest patches into smaller patches. Using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) - based forest cover and change maps (1991-2007), fragmentation metrics, and Principal Components Analysis (PCA), this study determined the extent and configuration of forest fragmentation within three ecoregions and 186 level 5 watersheds throughout the state of Maine. Forests in the Northeastern ecoregion had higher harvest rates and more interspersed patches of undisturbed forest. Forests in the South-Central ecoregion are composed of more, smaller patches than their Northeastern …