Historical land-cover classification for conservation and management in Hawaiian subalpine drylands

Author:

Kellner, James R., Asner, Gregory P., Cordell, S., Thaxton, Jarrod M., Kinney, Kealoha M., Kennedy-Bowdoin, Ty, Knapp, David E., Questad, Erin J., Ambagis, Stephen

Title:

Historical land-cover classification for conservation and management in Hawaiian subalpine drylands

Periodical:

Pacific Science

Year:

2012

Volume:

66

Pages:

457-466

Subject:

Forests ecology Hawaii Island Airborne remote sensing Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) Subalpine forests

Summary:

The Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA), on the island of Hawaii, is an active U.S. Army training installation that contains 24 unique vegetation communities and substrates from numerous volcanic eruptions. This is also a subalpine tropical dryland ecosystem that contains 15 species of federally listed threatened and endangered plants as well as the endangered honeycreeper, Palila (Loxioides bailleui). However, due to the clearing of land by Polynesian and European settlers in addition to introduced exotic plant and animal species, the tropical dry forests in Hawaii has been reduced to less than ten percent of its original extent. However, since these forests were once the most diverse in the archipelago, their decline is an important contributor to the loss of Hawaiian biota. As a result, this study was done to improve the understanding of the recent disturbance history of this dryland ecosystem and to identify areas that remained in woody vegetation during the previous 54 year period which can serve as targets for restoration and management.

Label:

Ecology - Dry Forests

Date:

2012

Collection:

Periodicals