Preserving and Utilizing Our Forest Resources

Research on America's Great Renewable Resource

Mapping and Monitoring of Southern Yellow Pine Species in Tennessee, Using an Integrated Remote Sensing and GIS Approach

Increasing Agroforestry based Ecosystem Services through Intercropping of Loblolly Pine and Switchgrass

Modeling Forest Site Productivity using Soil Characteristics and Stand Management History

Mapping and Monitoring of Southern Yellow Pine Species in Tennessee, Using an Integrated Remote Sensing and GIS Approach
 Dr. Clement Akumu
Southern yellow pine species such as loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) and shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) contribute significantly to the economy and wellbeing of the citizens of Tennessee. However, there is limited knowledge of the spatio-temporal distribution of these species stands in Tennessee. Furthermore, there is a desire to explore new mapping and classification techniques that can improve the mapping accuracies of these softwood species. The objectives of these study are: a) to map and monitor the spatial distribution of southern yellow pine (loblolly, virginia and shortleaf) stands in middle Tennessee using Landsat satellite data in the past 40 years that Landsat satellite was launched; b) to examine the classification accuracies of traditional whole pixel classification vs sub-pixel classification techniques in mapping softwood species (southern yellow pine species); and c) to explore the potential of improving classification and mapping accuracies of southern yellow pine stands by incorporating plant stress/drought monitoring indices with satellite reflectance images. Remote sensing mapping techniques will be used to delineate these softwood species stands and Geographic Information System (GIS) will provide the framework for analysis. This study will generate southern yellow pine stands distribution maps that will be used to improve forest management and planning by local governments, landowners, contractors and private companies. Furthermore new mapping techniques will be developed in order to enhance classification and mapping accuracies of these softwood species.

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Increasing Agroforestry based Ecosystem Services through Intercropping of Loblolly Pine and Switchgrass
 Dr. Solomon Haile
Small farms and timber operations are significant drivers of the economy in Tennessee and the southeastern region. These small-scale operations have natural resource management problems that are caused by various environmental changes. A real challenge and opportunity also lies in how agricultural and forestry efforts can sustainably meet the future renewable energy targets facing the United States and the world. Agroforestry intercropping--the combination of agricultural and forestry technologies to create integrated, diverse, and productive land use systems-- can be a source of a multiple-use biofuel crop. Agroforestry intercropping plants of divergent growth habit and architecture produce greater yields of both on a per unit basis than plants grown in monoculture. Biological synergism results from improved ecosystem services through the sharing of space, soil and water resources, mutual protection from pests, and greater nutrient availability through enhanced biodiversity of soil microbes, insects and animals. A limited number of studies have shown the benefits of agroforestry intercropping of perennial woody species and annual crops to maximize production. Studies that are focused on evaluating the change or improvement in ecosystem services from the agroforestry intercropping of woody and perennial herbaceous (grass) crops, however, are rare. The proposed research will further document benefits to ecosystem services of provisioning (productivity), supporting (nutrient cycling) and regulating (C-sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions), and expand the study to evaluate supporting ecosystem services of soil nutrient and water resources. To quantify the improvement in ecosystem services, a field project will be conducted on our current site on Cheatham Educational and Research Center of Tennessee State University.

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Modeling Forest Site Productivity using Soil Characteristics and Stand Management History
 Dr. Bharat Pokharel
The productivity of an ecosystem is characterized by an interaction of biogeoclimatic factors that include climatic, edaphic and topographic components. Accurate characterization of site allows for efficient land use allocation, integrated ecosystem planning, evaluation for ecosystem productivity and diagnosis and prescribed management for an ecosystem. Site index or the height of dominant or co-dominant trees at a reference age, is an important proxy of site quality and has been used in many conceptual and simulation models of ecosystem dynamics. Predictive site productivity mapping using climatic, geographic or other auxiliary variables have been used; however, they lack soil characteristics as predictor variables. The site productivity mapping without incorporating soil variables that capture variability at the micro level, is incomplete; therefore, there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of soil variables while predicting the forest site productivity. This project primarily aims to address an important component of forest ecosystem, the forest soil health and sustainability. One of the anticipated outputs from the project is a predictive map of forest productivity index, which not only helps to plan a continuous supply of traditional forest products, e.g. timber and pulp, and new bioproducts such as biomass for bioenergy from the forest, but also helps to strategically manage the forest for multi-value forest products.

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