scholarly journals Vegetation structural complexity and biodiversity in the Great Smoky Mountains

Ecosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Walter ◽  
Atticus E. L. Stovall ◽  
Jeff W. Atkins
Keyword(s):  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Smoky Mountains

scholarly journals Vegetation Structural Complexity and Biodiversity Across Elevation Gradients in the Great Smoky Mountains

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Walter ◽  
Atticus Stovall ◽  
Jeff Atkins
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Plant Biodiversity ◽  
Structural Variations ◽  
Elevation Gradients ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Complexity Metrics ◽  
Smoky Mountains

Questions: Elevation, biodiversity, and forest structure are commonly correlated, but their relationships near the positive extremes of biodiversity and elevation are unclear. We asked 1) How does forest structure vary with elevation in a high biodiversity, high topographic complexity region? 2) Does forest structure predict vascular plant biodiversity? 3) Is plant biodiversity more strongly related to elevation or to forest structure? Location: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USAMethods: We used terrestrial LiDAR scanning (TLS) to characterize vegetation structure in 12 forest plots. We combined two new canopy structural complexity metrics with traditional TLS-derived forest structural metrics and vascular plant biodiversity data to investigate correlations among forest structure metrics, biodiversity, and elevation. Results: Forest structure varied widely across plots spanning the elevational range of GRSM. Our new measures of canopy density (Depth) and structural complexity (σDepth) were sensitive to structural variations and effectively summarized horizontal and vertical dimensions of structural complexity. Vascular plant biodiversity was negatively correlated with elevation, and more strongly positively correlated with vegetation structure variables. Conclusions: The strong correlations we observed between canopy structural complexity and biodiversity suggest that structural complexity metrics could be used to assay plant biodiversity over large areas in concert with airborne and spaceborne platforms.

Using Spatial Modeling to Improve Wetland Inventories in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 482
Author(s):  
Alix A. Pfennigwerth ◽  
Joshua Albritton ◽  
Troy Evans
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Modeling ◽  
National Park ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Smoky Mountains

Black Bear/Human Conflicts in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

1980 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis J. Singer ◽  
Susan Power Bratton
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Black Bear ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Smoky Mountains

scholarly journals Normative Irritability in Youth: Developmental Findings From the Great Smoky Mountains Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 635-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Copeland ◽  
Melissa A. Brotman ◽  
E. Jane Costello
Keyword(s):  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Smoky Mountains
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