Soils, Fire, and Landscape Ecology

Soils provide the basis on which forests develop and fire, for many forest ecosystem types, creates and maintain conditions; although often viewed as a negative force, fire is a critical ecosystem process for many of our coniferous forests in the northern Lower Peninsula. Finally, landscape ecology is a field of scientific inquiry that aids forest management by investigating patterns and processes (such s fire) at broader scales than a single forest ownership.

Soil Habitat Types by Burger and Kotar (2003)

Soil habitat types for the northern Lower Peninsula help the user understand successional pathways a forest may go through on a given site. Some soils are a little drier and are more apt to produce pine ecosystem types, depending on disturbance regime such as fire. Others are a little more mesic and may produce forests of sugar maple, American beech, and associated species.

Regional Landscape Ecosystems

This US Forest Service publication provides a description of nested landscape ecosystems of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It covers factors such as pre-European vegetation, geology/soils, Threatened/Endangered species, etc.

Climate Change and Forests: A Tree Atlas

This work from the US Forest Service suggests where habitat for individual tree species may be in the future under different climate change scenarios. 

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