Testing an Ecosystem Regionalization
Bailey RG. 1984. Testing an Ecosystem Regionalization. Journal of Environmental Management. 19:239-248
ABSTRACT: As a means of developing reliable estimates of ecosystem productivity, landscapes need to be stratified into homogeneous geographic regions. Such ecosystem regions are hypothesized to be productively different in important ways. One measure of the difference is hydrologic productivity (i.e. runoff per unit area). To test the hypothesis that hydrologic productivity is significantly different from region to region, data from 53 hydrologic bench-mark stations within major ecosystem regions of the conterminous United States were subjected to discriminant analysis. The ecosystem regions tested in this study exhibit a high degree of ability to circumscribe stations with similar hydrologic productivity. Discriminant analysis seem~to be a particularly appropriate method for testing the validity of land units at all scales of interest.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Bailey, Robert
- Units
- GRSM
- Keywords
- APHN, Appalachian Highlands Network, Cataloochee Creek, discriminant analysis, ecological land classification, ecosystem, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, GRSM, landscape ecology, Little River, productivity, region, SER, Southeast Region