EXOTIC INVASIVE SPECIES DYNAMICS AND IMPACTS IN FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

In chapter 1, I used spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) visual survey data provided by USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), along with two anthropogenic variables and six habitat variables. The anthropogenic variables were human population from the U.S. Census and road density calculated by Liebhold et al. 2013 from the ArcGIS World Transportation reference layer and each was considered a proxy for human-aided dispersal. The six habitat variables included forested area and five host availability terms expressed as basal area, host trees per acre, number of host trees per county, tree of heaven occurrence, and canopy cover. Forested land was obtained from the US Forest Service FIA MapMaker online data query system (https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/data-tools/mapping-tools). Percent forest canopy cover was obtained from the Forest Service’s cartographic tree canopy cover product (USDA Forest Service 2016). Host basal area and numbers of host trees per acre and county were obtained from the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, using a published list of known SLF hosts from Barringer and Ciafre (2020).