Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Forest Science (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science
Advisor 1
Fengjing Liu
Advisor 2
Randall Kolka
Committee Member 1
Amy Marcarelli
Committee Member 2
Laura Bourgeau-Chavez
Abstract
For more than a decade intensive research on the ecohydrology of black ash wetland ecosystems has been performed to understand these systems before they are drastically altered by the invasive species, emerald ash borer (EAB). In that time there has been little research aimed at the scale and persistence of the alterations. Three distinct but related research articles will be presented to demonstrate a method for moderate resolution mapping of black ash across its entire range, understand the relative impacts of EAB and climate change on probable future wetland conditions, and develop an experimental and modeling approach to quantify and reduce uncertainty around water level measurements that underpin much of our understanding in these systems. Results from this research demonstrate that the scale and persistence of these impacts will be dependent not only on the immediate impacts of EAB, but also on vegetative response, the true extent of black ash wetlands on the landscape, and the compounding influence of a changing climate. Major findings from this research include 1) the effects of EAB and climate in the study area are counteracting, generally with a larger drying climate impact, 2) across its range black ash can be distinguished from other forest types using a combination of unsupervised and supervised learning on satellite imagery, and 3) over larger spatial scales and time periods uncertainty of our results is critical for interpretation and should be considered at the lowest level of data collection. At a higher level, this research is intended to serve as a bridge between study-site level changes and the spatial and temporal extent of those changes, opening new research questions to better understand these relatively rapid shifts in regional forested wetlands.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Shannon, Joseph, "REGIONAL IMPACTS OF INVASIVE SPECIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE ON BLACK ASH WETLANDS", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2021.
Included in
Data Science Commons, Environmental Monitoring Commons, Forest Management Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons, Water Resource Management Commons