Floodplain Forest Canopy Gap Survey Data for select gaps in pools of the Upper Mississippi River, Field Gap Data Spreadsheet

Publication Date

2023-06-15

Start Date

2019-06-25

End Date

2019-08-30

Guyon, L., Strassman, A., Oines, A., Meier, A., Thomsen, M., Sattler, S., DeJager, N., Hoy, E., Vandermyde, B., and Cosgriff, R., 2023, Forest canopy gap dynamics: quantifying forest gaps and understanding gap – level forest regeneration in Upper Mississippi River floodplain forests: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9Q5EKU1.

This dataset is intended to supplement geospatial data to provide insights into the three key research questions for this study: 1. What is the current abundance and distribution of forest canopy gaps in the Upper Mississippi River System, and what proportion of these gaps have been re-colonized by forest tree species relative to herbaceous plants? 2. What site and landscape level variables (such as, gap size, flood dynamics, soils, surrounding forest) are associated with herbaceous invasion versus forest reestablishment? Is there an association between reestablishment and health and successional dynamics in the surrounding forest? 3. Are there associations between the spatial arrangement of forest gaps and the health of surrounding forests? By integrating geospatial and field-collected data, is it possible to identify forest areas that are most vulnerable to canopy loss in the near-term?

• Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC)

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