Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Narrowing Historical Uncertainty: Probabilistic Classification Of Ambiguously Identified Tree Species In Historical Forest Survey Data, David J. Mladenoff, Sally E. Dahir, Eric V. Nordheim, Lisa A. Schulte, Glenn G. Guntenspergen

Lisa A. Schulte Moore

Historical data have increasingly become appreciated for insight into the past conditions of ecosystems. Uses of such data include assessing the extent of ecosystem change; deriving ecological baselines for management, restoration, and modeling; and assessing the importance of past conditions on the composition and function of current systems. One historical data set of this type is the Public Land Survey (PLS) of the United States General Land Office, which contains data on multiple tree species, sizes, and distances recorded at each survey point, located at half-mile (0.8-km) intervals on a 1-mi (1.6 km) grid. This survey method was begun in …