The Use of Repeat Photography for Historical Ecology Research in the Landscape of Bandelier National Monument and the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico: Final Report to Southwest Parks and Monuments Association
Hogan JT and Allen CD. 2000. The Use of Repeat Photography for Historical Ecology Research in the Landscape of Bandelier National Monument and the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico: Final Report to Southwest Parks and Monuments Association. U.S. Geological Survey, Midcontinent Ecological Science Center, Jemez Mountains Field Station. Los Alamos, NM
The detection and analysis of change at multiple temporal and spatial scales is fundamental to historical ecology research (Swetnam et al. 1999). Knowledge of past conditions is essential to our understanding of the dynamics that shaped, and continue to shape, current landscape patterns and processes. In the Southwest, the relative contributions of climate fluctuation and human disturbance to the observed changes in the composition, structure, function, and distribution of regional landscapes has been persistently debated (Hastings and Turner 1965, Bahre 1991, Allen et al. 1998). In Northern New Mexico, past environmental conditions and landscape patterns have been reconstructed from multiple lines of evidence, each with inherent strengths and weaknesses. Recently, repeat photography has been enlisted as a research tool to augment dendrochronology, palynology, land use history, and a suite of inventory and monitoring programs, in the study of the changing landscape in which Bandelier National Monument is embedded. Repeat photography can be a valuable tool in documenting and interpreting the causes of landscape changes. Outstanding Southwestern examples are the seminal The Changing Mile (Hastings and Turner 1965), A Legacy of Change (Bahre 1991), The Colorado Front Range, a Century of Ecological Change (Veblen and Lorenz 1991), and Grand Canyon, a Century of Change (Webb 1996). An initial description of the use of repeat photography for historical ecology research in the Bandelier landscape is presented here.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hogan, John; Allen, Craig
- Date of Issue
- 2000-01-11
- Publisher
- U.S. Geological Survey, Midcontinent Ecological Science Center, Jemez Mountains Field Station
- Units
- BAND
- Keywords
- Jemez Mountains (New Mexico), Landscape changes, Landscape Ecology, Pajarito Plateau (New Mexico), Plant Communities, Plant Studies, Repeat photography, Vegetation Dynamics