Global change studies in the western great lakes biogeographic area
Flakne RA and Cole KL. 1993. Global change studies in the western great lakes biogeographic area. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 74(2):234
In the Western Great Lakes Biogeographic Area of the National Park Service Global Change Research Program, four interlocking projects focusing on Isle Royale and Voyageurs National Parks examine the processes of ecosystem change. Nitrogen and carbon cycling in an Isle Royale are being measured and related to yearly climatic fluctuations; fossil pollen and charcoal are being used to reconstruct the Holocene paleoenvironmental history of the parks; permanent vegetation plots that were previously established and measured are being re-sampled; and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are being used to map the present elements of the parks, assisting studies of landscape change. These projects will produce integrated sets of data which will be used to build and calibrate stand simulation models. Through application of the modem and paleo-GIS themes, present and past vegetation changes are being studied at a landscape scale. The knowledge of nutrient, successional, and competitive dynamics supplied from these studies will be used in predicting future vegetational dynamics.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Flakne, Robyn; Cole, Kenneth
- Units
- ISRO
- Keywords
- Ecology, Global Climate Change