South Atlantic Maritime Forest (Southeast Blueprint Indicator)

Reason for Selection Overall acreage of existing maritime forest provides an indicator of whether maritime forest being inundated by sea-level rise is being replaced or restored somewhere else. Since maritime forest has been substantially reduced from its historic extent, protecting the remaining acreage is important (Bellis 1995). This ecosystem supports a unique suite of plants that tolerate wind, salt, and flooding, as well as many species of birds, mammals, and reptiles. It also helps buffer the coastline from storms (NOAA 2021). Maritime forest is also well monitored and resonates with a diversity of audiences. Input Data * [Base Blueprint 2022 subregions] * [Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent] * [LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type], accessed 3-31-2021;[access the data] Mapping Steps * Extract the LANDFIRE existing vegetation type classes with the following names, which are considered maritime forest: Central Atlantic Coastal Plain Maritime Forest, East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest, Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain Maritime Forest, Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Maritime Grassland. * Add zero values to help users better understand the extent of this indicator and to make this indicator layer perform better in online tools. Use the expand tool to buffer the maritime forest pixels by 40 km. We chose this distance because it was large enough to make a continuous buffer along the coast, with no gaps. Shrink the expanded areas back down by 30 km. We added this step to better reflect that maritime forest exists near the marine shoreline. * Clip to the ‘Atlantic Coastal Plain’ and East Gulf Coastal Plain’ subregions. LANDFIRE depicts maritime forest classes that also cover parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida that are not represented in this indicator, but the data has not yet been vetted in those areas. Since the original indicator was developed for the South Atlantic region, expert review for other regions is needed before they are used in the Blueprint. * Clip to the spatial extent of Base Blueprint 2022. * As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2023. Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the [Southeast Blueprint Data Download] under > 6_Code. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 1 = Maritime forest 0 = Not identified as maritime forest Known Issues * The LANDFIRE existing vegetation map underpredicts the extent of maritime forest in several known locations, including Kitty Hawk Woods and Nags Head Woods in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. * We include the Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Maritime Grassland existing vegetation classes from LANDFIRE because some known maritime forests in the South Atlantic are misclassified as this type. This may result in overpredicting maritime forest in some dune and grassland areas. * This indicator underpredicts maritime forest along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email [hilary_morris@fws.gov]). Literature Cited Bellis, Vincent. Ecology of Maritime Forests of the Southern Atlantic Coast: A Community Profile. May 1995. Biological Report 30. U.S. Department of the Interior. National Biological Service. [[https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA322557.pdf]]. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National Ocean Service. January 4, 2021. What is a maritime forest? [[https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/maritime-forest.html]]. U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. 2020. LANDFIRE Remap 2016 Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) CONUS: LF Remap. Accessed March 31, 2021. [[https://www.landfire.gov]].