Cary canopy photo data for years 1982, 1983, 1991
The Forest Response to Stress and Damage (frequently referred to as FORSTAD) and long term forest monitoring project began in 1992 to study how mixed-oak forests respond to multiple forms of environmental change. The research took place at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in the Hudson Valley of New York. FORSTAD included several sub-projects including (1) air pollution and nutrient cycling dynamics, (2) spongy moth population dynamics, (3) small mammal dynamics and (4) vegetation dynamics. This dataset is a contribution to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and is part of the Long term monitoring of forest ecosystems: Cary spongy moth dynamics.
To understand the impacts of spongy moth, a non-native forest pest, every stage of the spongy moth life cycle was monitored. This included counts of spongy moths in each life stage as well as the effects of the caterpillar’s consumption of forest trees. The measurements included spongy moth egg mass density and fecundity, egg mass hatch and parasitism, late instar larval density, pupal density (at high density), canopy photos to estimate defoliation, visual estimate of defoliation, mechanisms of moth release, including white footed mouse and chipmunk removals in 1995, 1997 and 1998, larval & pupal persistence, pupal predation, natural pupation and pupal viral analysis.
Spongy moth monitoring began at Cary Institute in 1981, prior to the onset of the FORSTAD project, when a pilot study was initiated at Cary Institute, to sample a wide range of habitats and the resident spongy moth population. Data provided in this dataset include canopy photo data collected in 1982, 1983 and 1991. Note that similar data were collected as part of the Cary Institute FORSTAD project using a similar but different method from 1994-1997.
File list:
Cary_Canopy_Photo_Data_1982_1983_1991.csv
Cary_Canopy_Photo_Data_1982_1983_1991_SHARE.pdf - contains complete project metadata, personnel, methodology, and definitions for data variables.
See Related Materials for more data from the spongy moth sub-project.
