Planning Tools: LANDIS

• As part of a long-term study to quantify the response of birds to timber harvest in Minnesota, we have linked habitat models for bird species in the forested region of the state to the output of a landscape-level simulation model, LANDIS.
• LANDIS is a spatially explicit forest growth and succession model that incorporates wind, fire and harvesting disturbances. LANDIS was designed to simulate large landscapes on the order of tens of thousands of hectares.
• Using point count data gathered from 12 years of intensive population monitoring (>1,600 count locations), we have developed predictive models of occurrence for more than 50 species of forest-related bird species using proportion of various landcover types as explanatory variables.
• By linking these models to the simulated future landscape, we quantitatively predicted the effects of alternative forest management scenarios for many forest bird species.
• Official LANDIS Website

   

  For more information see:

Gustafson, E., M.G. Knutson, G.J. Niemi, and M. Hammer-Friberg. 2002. Evaluation of spatial models to predict vulnerability of forest birds to brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. Ecological Applications 12(2): 412-426.