Wednesday, November 7, 2007
301-2

Exploring, Modeling and Mapping Volcanic Ash Depth to Understand Soil-Landscape Structure and Function Over Moscow Mountain in North Idaho.

Paul Gessler, Robert Brown, and Paul McDaniel. University of Idaho, Dept. Of Forest Resources, University Of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1133

This talk will present results of the exploration and modeling of ash cap presence and depth across the forested and complex terrain of Moscow Mountain in north Idaho. Volcanic ash presence and depth have an important influence on profile water holding capacity and general forest productivity across the region. A diverse field-sampling database complemented by a LiDAR derived digital elevation model sampled at various grid resolutions for topographic attribute calculation is explored using a variety of parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques. The results provide the first detailed landscape and hillslope level analyses of patterns and provide the basis for hypothesizing and testing different theories on the spatial distribution of ash in this region.