Abstract
Ecological theory suggests that diversity and productivity (at some measure) are positively correlated, presumably because individuals engage in niche partitioning to occupy any unclaimed growing space. We examined this theory using inventory information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program. The study uses plot-level data from inventories of the Lake States region conducted between 1999 and 2005. Relationships between diversity and biomass productivity in two contrasting forest cover types - aspen and sugar maple-beech-birch - were examined using two measures of diversity. We expected aspen productivity to increase with increasing species diversity and sugar maple-beech-yellow birch productivity to increase with increasing height diversity, reflecting the niche occupancy of each type and reasonable strategies for differentiation. On a landscape level, matching diversity and productivity would better allow us to predict change as a result of management actions, ecological succession, or other factors.
Parent Publication
Citation
Moser, W. Keith; Hansen, Mark. 2009. The relationship between diversity and productivity in selected forests of the Lake States Region (USA): relative impact of species versus structural diversity. In: McRoberts, Ronald E.; Reams, Gregory A.; Van Deusen, Paul C.; McWilliams, William H., eds. Proceedings of the eighth annual forest inventory and analysis symposium; 2006 October 16-19; Monterey, CA. Gen. Tech. Report WO-79. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 149-157.
