Eastern Kentucky University

Understanding Eastern Kentucky Ecosystems: Three Studies

Institution

Eastern Kentucky University

Abstract

Three different projects conducted by students working with the Eastern Kentucky Environmental Research Institute at EKU are featured in this poster. “Woody Plant Species Compositional Response to a Timber Harvest in South-Central Kentucky” (Emily Clemons), compared a site logged in 1996 with nearby unlogged control site to examine the regeneration of forest structure post-timbering. Prior to harvest, the logged site was divided into 25 plots, and an unharvested control area was established consisting of 16 plots. This followup ten years after the timber harvest examined forest composition information was collected in the same manner from both the harvested and unharvested plot sites. “GroundTruthing Remotely Sensed Data In a Small Watershed on the Urban/Rural Fringe” (Jill Hunter), tested methods of generating a land coverage at reasonable cost by combining the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), the National Agriculture Imagery Program digital orthophotography, and a limited number of field observations to produce a revised polygonal land use layer. While the NLCD is good for GIS applications at the state scale, it much less accurate at the small watershed scale where many land management decisions take place. “The Big Dip" (Evan Smith, ,Jeff Combs, and others) was a diagnostic sampling of 917 headwaters streams in Southeastern Kentucky conducted by a team of both EKU students and community members in Letcher county. The geographic distribution of the eight parameters tested and their implications for ecological and community health will be presented.

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Understanding Eastern Kentucky Ecosystems: Three Studies

Three different projects conducted by students working with the Eastern Kentucky Environmental Research Institute at EKU are featured in this poster. “Woody Plant Species Compositional Response to a Timber Harvest in South-Central Kentucky” (Emily Clemons), compared a site logged in 1996 with nearby unlogged control site to examine the regeneration of forest structure post-timbering. Prior to harvest, the logged site was divided into 25 plots, and an unharvested control area was established consisting of 16 plots. This followup ten years after the timber harvest examined forest composition information was collected in the same manner from both the harvested and unharvested plot sites. “GroundTruthing Remotely Sensed Data In a Small Watershed on the Urban/Rural Fringe” (Jill Hunter), tested methods of generating a land coverage at reasonable cost by combining the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), the National Agriculture Imagery Program digital orthophotography, and a limited number of field observations to produce a revised polygonal land use layer. While the NLCD is good for GIS applications at the state scale, it much less accurate at the small watershed scale where many land management decisions take place. “The Big Dip" (Evan Smith, ,Jeff Combs, and others) was a diagnostic sampling of 917 headwaters streams in Southeastern Kentucky conducted by a team of both EKU students and community members in Letcher county. The geographic distribution of the eight parameters tested and their implications for ecological and community health will be presented.