title: Statistically-Estimated Tree Composition for the Northeastern United States at Euro-American Settlement.
abstract: We present a gridded 8 km-resolution data product of the estimated composition of tree taxa at the time of Euro-American settlement of the northeastern United States and the statistical methodology used to produce the product from trees recorded by land surveyors. Composition is defined as the proportion of stems larger than approximately 20 cm diameter at breast height for 22 tree taxa, generally at the genus level. The data come from settlement-era public survey records that are transcribed and then aggregated spatially, giving count data. The domain is divided into two regions, eastern (Maine to Ohio) and midwestern (Indiana to Minnesota). Public Land Survey point data in the midwestern region (ca. 0.8-km resolution) are aggregated to a regular 8 km grid, while data in the eastern region, from Town Proprietor Surveys, are aggregated at the township level in irregularly-shaped local administrative units. The product is based on a Bayesian statistical model fit to the count data that estimates composition on the 8 km grid across the entire domain. The statistical model is designed to handle data from both the regular grid and the irregularly-shaped townships and allows us to estimate composition at locations with no data and to smooth over noise caused by limited counts in locations with data. Critically, the model also allows us to quantify uncertainty in our composition estimates, making the product suitable for applications employing data assimilation. We expect this data product to be useful for understanding the state of vegetation in the northeastern United States prior to large-scale Euro-American settlement. In addition to specific regional questions, the data product can also serve as a baseline against which to investigate how forests and ecosystems change after intensive settlement. The data product is being made available at the NIS data portal as version 1.0.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Paciorek
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Goring
authors.affiliation: VA Office of Rural Health, Veterans Rural Health Resource Center, Iowa City VAMC, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America.
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Thurman
authors.affiliation: Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Charles V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Cogbill
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.|Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mladenoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jody A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jason S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: McLachlan
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002947:Cities / Q000266:history; D017753:Ecosystem; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000266:history; D005060:Europe / Q000208:ethnology; D016468:Forestry / Q000266:history; D065928:Forests; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D015146:Midwestern United States; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009511:New England; D016011:Normal Distribution; D063148:Plant Dispersal; D013045:Species Specificity; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development; D014507:Urbanization / Q000266:history