Web application to access and visualize US Forest Inventory and Analysis Program down woody materials data

Abstract

Accurate assessments of down woody materials (DWM)-soil duff and litter, dead and downed fine and coarse woody detritus, and live and dead understory vegetation-are important because of their roles in forest floor carbon storage, organism habitat, nutrient cycling, and fuel loading. The USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) subsamples DWM in its extensive annual survey of US forestland and reports raw data measurements in its database. We combined FIA plot measurements and auxiliary specific gravity and other data to estimate the DWM component mass on FIA plots. The resulting database, designed for use with key stand structure variables and geographic subsets (state and/or ecoregion), can be downloaded at http://web.gis.vt. edu/forestry/dwm. A companion interactive map allows viewing of the DWM data set via a color-coded display of user-selected DWM component mass, thus allowing users to quickly access and choose DWM data for downloading. Research scientists, managers, and policymakers can use a valuable national-scale DWM baseline data set via this online tool. © 2013 Society of American Foresters.