Fire-adapted witness trees across the northeastern United States including four National Forests

Witness trees can shed light on past disturbance regimes. An interpolation technique was applied to witness-tree point data to form a contiguous surface of pyrophilic percentage for four national forests in the northeastern United States. This method was also applied to town-level witness-tree data for the entire northeastern United States. Through this, a distinct east-west line dividing area of high (south) and low (north) pyrophilic percentage was found. Known as the tension zone, the undulating character of this boundary, penetrating northward along major river valleys, underscores the importance of Native Americans as a disturbance agent on the presettlement landscape. The interpolated coverages of the percent of pyrophilic witness trees for the Allegheny, Finger Lakes, Green Mountain, and White Mountain National Forests and the town-level interpolated surface for the broader New England area are included in this data publication. The tension zone line is also included as a separate file.
The interpolated data were created to aid in landscape-scale prescribed fire planning and explore and describe the likely past disturbance regimes of the northeastern United States.
For more information about these data see Thomas-Van Gundy et al. (2015).

见证树（witness trees）可为区域既往的干扰制度提供重要研究依据。本研究采用插值技术对见证树点位数据进行处理，生成美国东北部四座国家森林的嗜火百分比连续插值面。该方法同样被应用于美国东北部全域的镇级见证树数据集。通过上述分析，研究发现一条清晰的东西向分界线，将区域划分为嗜火百分比较高的南部区域与较低的北部区域。该边界被称为张力带（tension zone），其呈波浪状起伏，并沿主要河谷向北延展，这一特征凸显了原住民作为定居前景观干扰因子的重要性。本数据集包含阿勒格尼国家森林、芬格湖国家森林、绿山国家森林以及怀特山国家森林的嗜火见证树百分比插值覆盖数据，以及覆盖范围更广的新英格兰地区镇级插值表面。此外，张力带界线也以独立文件形式提供。
本插值数据集旨在为景观尺度的计划火烧规划提供辅助支持，并用于探究与描述美国东北部地区既往的干扰制度。
如需了解这些数据的更多细节，请参阅Thomas-Van Gundy等人（2015）的研究成果。