Ecosystem modeling reveals extensive soils that could support globally
rare pine barrens and sandplain ecosystems in New York State
Abstract
Pine barren and sandplain ecosystems are unique, globally rare
ecosystems whose open-canopied vegetation structure supports a unique
assemblage of plants and animals. They occur almost exclusively on deep,
sandy soils, and require periodic disturbances to prevent succession to
forest. Though these ecosystems, and the unique species that live in
them, are rare today, they once occupied a larger area of coastal and
interior New York and New England. In order to better understand pine
barren and sandplain distribution in the past, and the potential for
restoring them in the future, we mapped the distribution of soils in New
York State that can support these ecosystems. We quantified soil percent
sand and soil depth of 156 known high quality remnant pine barren and
sandplain ecosystems to calculate threshold soil characteristics. We
then mapped all soils in the state that were at least as sandy and deep
as the threshold values we calculated. The total area of our map of
potential soil conditions was over 9,500 km2, made up of forested
(57%), urban (26%), agricultural (13%) and open (4%) land cover.
Nearly 7,000 km2 – almost 20 times the area of known, high quality
remnant ecosystems – of land was forested, agricultural, or open land.
Existing examples of pine barren and sandplain ecosystems were mostly
embedded within much larger matrices of forest, agriculture, and urban
land cover that shared the distinctive soil conditions. The presence of
extensive soils in coastal and interior New York that, with the
appropriate disturbance regime, have the potential to host pine barren
and sandplain ecosystems offers a new perspective on these ecosystems’
distribution in the past – and about how to better align restoration
and conservation to preserve the future.