Design and validation of a spatially explicit simulation model for bottomland hardwood forests

Authored by James W Haefner, Tim Nuttle

Date Published: 2007

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2006.07.010

Sponsors: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Willard Eccles Foundation Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Species composition in forests depends on the interaction of species traits and species availability. Yet many forest simulation models focus only on interactions of adult trees and saplings, ignoring how species become members of the community. We modify a published forest model for bottomland hardwood forests (program SWAMP {[}Phipps, R.L., 1979. Simulation of wetlands forest vegetation dynamics. Ecol. Modell. 7, 257-288]) to make it spatially explicit and incorporate explicit seed production and dispersal algorithms. The resulting individual-based, spatially explicit forest simulator (YAFSIM) combines mechanistic seed dispersal with growth and mortality of trees to track forest dynamics over time. We describe the structure of the model and test its validity for dynamics in small bottomland hardwood patches in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley Dynamics of species composition and basal areas of trees predicted by Yazoo Forest Simulator (YAFSIM) were similar to those of natural second- and old-growth bottomland forests. However, diversity of simulated forest patches declined over time largely because of random dynamics acting on small, isolated populations. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tags

Dynamics Diversity Seed dispersal patterns growth Mechanisms Recruitment Wind dispersal Mississippi alluvial valley Texas