Multiple Life Form Input Fields
To use multiple life forms requires additional fields in the GIS files. If the inventories do not
contain this information it can often be added by extrapolating from sources such as Forest
Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots. If it has not been added, but the OpenSIMPPLLE area file
must be multiple life forms to be able to run a specific feature (such as using invasive species in
the Eastside Region One), there is a choice under Utilities that will convert the file to be
recognized as having multiple life forms even though no additional values exist. This will have
an impact on the summary report and the user must keep this in mind.
The species, size-class, density, process, and treatment have to be expanded to account for each
life form. Abbreviations used are TR = Trees, S = Shrubs, H = Herbaceous, A = Agriculture, N = NonForest, PROC = Disturbance Process, TREAT = Treament
The required fields in a text format are:
SPECIES_TR, SPECIES_S, SPECIES_H,
SPECIES_A SPECIES_N, SIZE_TR SIZE_S,
SIZE_H, SIZE_A, SIZE_N, DENSITY_TR,
DENSITY_S, DENSITY_H, DENSITY_A,
DENSITY_N, PROC_TR, PROC_S,
PROC_H, PROC_A, PROC_N ,
TREAT_TR, TREAT_S, TREAT_H,
TREAT_A, TREAT_N, PROC_TR_T,
PROC_S_T, PROC_H_T, PROC_A_T,
PROC_N_T, TREAT_TR_T, TREAT_S_T
TREAT_H_T, TREAT_A_T, TREAT_N_T
Tracking Species Input Fields
Tracking species can be used with single and multiple life forms and any life form (trees shrubs,
and herbaceous). This is used for two cases. One case is with grass communities where users do
not want to use a size and density, but an aggregate of species (see Appendix H for the
grassland zones). The second is to account for invasive species in the two zones that have logic
for invasive species, Eastside Region One and Colorado Plateau.
To use tracking species as a means to represent plant communities, the pathways have to be
built to identify the species that comprise the aggregate and will be tracked. Within the
Pathways, the inclusion rule has to be identified for what species have to be within certain
percents to identify the state. The rate of change (as a percent of what exists) for all species and
all possible disturbance processes has to be identified. If a species listed to track has a zero value
in the attributes file that comes from the GIS cover, and it is not a species listed in the ecological
stratification as a species to track, it is not brought into OpenSIMPPLLE. If the species value in
the attributes file that came from the cover is greater than zero but there still is no species
change information for it within the pathway files, it will be brought in, but the species value will
not change. In this case, the user can edit the pathway file, adding in change values for this new
species. Additional information on inclusion rules and rates of changes is covered under the
discussions on Pathways.
For tracking invasive species, the species has to be checked as invasive in the species attributes
editor and the rate of change and a threshold value has to be provided in the invasive species
system knowledge.
There is no limit for the number of species that can be tracked.
Each species being tracked must include a field for the species name (text format) and a field for
the percent of cover (long format):
SPTK_TRx
SPTK_TRxP
SPTK_Sx
SPTK_SxP
SPTK_Hx
SPTK_HxP
SPTK_Ax
SPTK_AxP
SPTK_Nx
SPTK_NxP
The tracking species number from 1 to the number of tracking species, with the number within
each life form is represented by x. These values have to be attributed for all records in the
vegetation feature class, even if the value is zero.
The following components in SIMPPLLE are necessary only if you are working in a zone that
requires them or for the features desired.