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  Home › Map Layers › Classification of Forest Fragmentation in North America 
 

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Classification of Forest Fragmentation in North America

What this map layer shows:

The amount and type of forest fragmentation in North America.		 opens the U.S. Geological Survey home page
Background Information
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The Classification of Forest Fragmentation map layer is a grid map of North America, including the Caribbean and most of Mexico, showing the amount of forest and the connectivity between patches of forest. The map portrays continental patterns at a relatively coarse scale and is considered a first step toward quantifying forest fragmentation and its potential impacts on biodiversity. These data were originally created as part of a global analysis of forest fragmentation and other land cover patterns that was based on digital land cover maps derived from remote sensing and produced by the Global Land Cover Characteristics (GLCC) project. The primary data source for the underlying GLCC land cover maps is Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite imagery from the early 1990s. This map layer was compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The Classification of Forest Fragmentation in North America map layer shows the fragmentation of forest cover in North America. The forest fragmentation classification is an index value designed to distinguish among types of fragmentation (for example, edges on the interior versus the exterior of a forest patch), and it also reflects differences in the absolute amount of forest present. However, no distinction was drawn between natural and human-caused fragmentation. The fragmentation classification index value is best interpreted as a relative value in comparison with other places on the same map. Also available is a map layer depicting the causes of forest fragmentation in the United States; this map layer is offered in three resolutions: 1 kilometer, 540 meters, and 270 meters.

 

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Last modified:  Monday, 23-Jul-2012 20:02:47 CDT