1. Forest Structure & Distribution Across the Giant Panda Geographic Range Jianguo (Jack) Liu (Michigan State University) Zhiyun Ouyang (Chinese Academy of Sciences) Jiaguo Qi (Michigan State University) Andrés Viña (Michigan State University)

2. National Conservation Programs  National Forest Conservation Program (NFCP)  Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP) Liu et al., PNAS. 2008.

3. Giant Panda Habitat Forest cover (broadleaf, coniferous and mixed) Altitudinal range between 1200-3800 m < 45 o slopes > 95% of diet is composed of bamboo

4. Giant Panda’s Geographic Range Historical RangeCurrent Range Restricted to 3 Provinces and 6 Mountain Regions

5. Objectives  Assess the spatial distribution of forests  Evaluate structural characteristics of the forests at plot scales  Develop techniques for up-scaling from plots to the entire panda geographic range

6. Field Data 540 field plots:  Forest cover/type  Elevation, slope, aspect  Stem density & basal area  Tree species composition  Presence of Giant Panda signs

7. MODIS 2004-2007 Forest Distribution Forest Cover ~ 30% of Giant Panda Range Coniferous ~ 48% Deciduous Broadleaf ~ 32% Mixed ~ 20%

8. Altitudinal Distribution PCF – Planted Coniferous Forest NCF – Natural Coniferous Forest DF – Deciduous Forest PMF – Planted Mixed Forest MF – Mixed Forest

9. Structure

10.  210 tree species in 109 genera  22 Bamboo species in 6 genera  Few species are widespread across the entire study area Species Diversity

12. Mantel Tests Inter-plot Floristic & RS Similarity Matrices Euclidean/Jaccard Matrices Tree Spp. Similarityp-value Spectral Similarity0.133< 0.05 NDVI Time Series Similarity 0.360< 0.001 VARI Time Series Similarity 0.382< 0.001

13. Floristic and Phenologic Ordinations Floristic – Non-metric multidimensional scaling Phenologic – Polar Coordinate Transformation

14. Floristic vs. Phenologic

15. Nature Reserve Representation

16. Conclusions  Forest constitutes a dominant land cover type  Altitudinal gradient explains the distribution of forest types  Significant structural differences occur among forest types

17. Conclusions  A significant relation was found between floristic and phenologic similarities  Time series of VARI exhibited the highest relationship with floristic similarity  Time series of vegetation indices thus constitute suitable surrogates for evaluating floristic similarity across large geographic regions.

18. Thanks!