South Atlantic Maritime Forest (Southeast Blueprint Indicator)

Reason for Selection Overall acreage of existing maritime forest provides an indicator of whether maritime forest being inundated by sea-level rise is being replaced or restored somewhere else. Since maritime forest has been substantially reduced from its historic extent, protecting the remaining acreage is important (Bellis 1995). This ecosystem supports a unique suite of plants that tolerate wind, salt, and flooding, as well as many species of birds, mammals, and reptiles. It also helps buffer the coastline from storms (NOAA 2021). Maritime forest is also well monitored and resonates with a diversity of audiences. Input Data Base Blueprint 2022 subregions Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type, accessed 3-31-2021;access the data Mapping Steps Extract the LANDFIRE existing vegetation type classes with the following names, which are considered maritime forest: Central Atlantic Coastal Plain Maritime Forest, East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest, Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain Maritime Forest, Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Maritime Grassland. Add zero values to help users better understand the extent of this indicator and to make this indicator layer perform better in online tools. Use the expand tool to buffer the maritime forest pixels by 40 km. We chose this distance because it was large enough to make a continuous buffer along the coast, with no gaps. Shrink the expanded areas back down by 30 km. We added this step to better reflect that maritime forest exists near the marine shoreline. Clip to the ‘Atlantic Coastal Plain’ and East Gulf Coastal Plain’ subregions. LANDFIRE depicts maritime forest classes that also cover parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida that are not represented in this indicator, but the data has not yet been vetted in those areas. Since the original indicator was developed for the South Atlantic region, expert review for other regions is needed before they are used in the Blueprint. Clip to the spatial extent of Base Blueprint 2022. As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2023. Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the Southeast Blueprint Data Download under > 6_Code. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 1 = Maritime forest 0 = Not identified as maritime forest Known Issues The LANDFIRE existing vegetation map underpredicts the extent of maritime forest in several known locations, including Kitty Hawk Woods and Nags Head Woods in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We include the Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Maritime Grassland existing vegetation classes from LANDFIRE because some known maritime forests in the South Atlantic are misclassified as this type. This may result in overpredicting maritime forest in some dune and grassland areas. This indicator underpredicts maritime forest along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email [e-mail]). Literature Cited Bellis, Vincent. Ecology of Maritime Forests of the Southern Atlantic Coast: A Community Profile. May 1995. Biological Report 30. U.S. Department of the Interior. National Biological Service. [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA322557.pdf]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National Ocean Service. January 4, 2021. What is a maritime forest? [https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/maritime-forest.html]. U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. 2020. LANDFIRE Remap 2016 Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) CONUS: LF Remap. Accessed March 31, 2021. [https://www.landfire.gov].指标选取依据 现有滨海森林（maritime forest）的总占地面积，可作为海平面上升淹没的滨海森林是否在其他区域得到替代或修复的量化指标。由于滨海森林的现存面积较历史分布范围已大幅缩减，保护现有留存的林地显得尤为关键（Bellis，1995）。该生态系统孕育了一批适应强风、高盐与淹涝环境的特有植物类群，同时为众多鸟类、哺乳类及爬行类物种提供栖息场所；此外还可缓冲风暴对海岸带的冲击（美国国家海洋和大气管理局[NOAA]，2021）。滨海森林的监测体系较为完善，且能够获得多类群体的关注与认同。 基础数据源 1. 2022年蓝图分区 2. 2023年东南部蓝图空间范围 3. LANDFIRE现有植被类型（Existing Vegetation Type, EVT）数据，数据获取时间为2021年3月31日 制图流程 1. 提取LANDFIRE现有植被类型中以下被归类为滨海森林的类别：中大西洋海岸平原滨海森林、东墨西哥湾海岸平原滨海森林、南大西洋海岸平原滨海森林、南大西洋海岸平原沙丘与滨海草原。 2. 添加零值字段，以便使用者更清晰地理解本指标的空间分布范围，同时提升该指标图层在线工具中的运行性能。 3. 使用扩展工具对滨海森林像元进行40公里缓冲区分析。选取该缓冲距离是因其足以沿海岸线形成连续无间断的缓冲区域。 4. 随后将扩展后的区域向内部收缩30公里，该步骤旨在更精准地反映滨海森林紧邻海洋岸线的分布特征。 5. 将图层裁剪至“大西洋海岸平原”与“东墨西哥湾海岸平原”分区范围内。LANDFIRE的滨海森林分类范围覆盖了路易斯安那州、阿拉巴马州及佛罗里达州的部分区域，但本指标未纳入这些区域，原因是该数据在上述区域尚未经过审核校验。由于本指标最初是为南大西洋区域开发的，因此在将其应用于其他区域前，需针对各区域开展专家评审工作。 6. 将图层裁剪至2022年基础蓝图的空间范围，最后一步再裁剪至2023年东南部蓝图的空间范围。 注：若需了解制图流程的更多细节，可在“东南部蓝图数据下载”模块的>6_代码文件夹中获取本图层的生成代码。 最终指标赋值规则 指标赋值规则如下： 1 = 滨海森林 0 = 非滨海森林 已知问题 1. LANDFIRE现有植被类型地图在若干已知区域低估了滨海森林的分布范围，例如北卡罗来纳州外滩群岛的基蒂霍克林地与纳格斯海德林地。 2. 本指标纳入了LANDFIRE中的南大西洋海岸平原沙丘与滨海草原植被类别，原因是南大西洋区域的部分已知滨海森林被误归为此类别，这可能导致部分沙丘与草原区域的滨海森林分布范围被高估。 3. 本指标还会低估佛罗里达州墨西哥湾沿岸的滨海森林分布范围。 免责声明：与旧版指标版本的对比 使用东南部蓝图指标开展变化分析存在诸多局限，若需开展此类分析，请咨询蓝图项目工作人员（邮箱：[e-mail]）。 参考文献 1. Bellis, Vincent. 《南大西洋海岸滨海森林生态学：群落概览》，1995年5月，生物报告30号，美国内政部国家生物服务局，[https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA322557.pdf] 2. 美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）国家海洋服务局，2021年1月4日，《何为滨海森林？》，[https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/maritime-forest.html] 3. 美国地质调查局地球资源观测与科学（EROS）中心，2020年，《LANDFIRE 2016重绘版美国本土现有植被类型（EVT）：LF重绘数据集》，数据获取时间2021年3月31日，[https://www.landfire.gov]