Landform

Jan 19, 2014 (Last modified Jan 21, 2014)
Created by 2C1Forest
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Description
Responsible for local variation in solar radiation, solid development and susceptibility to wind and other disturbances.

Rowe (1998) contends that landform is "the anchor and control of terrestrial ecosystems." Landforms are largely responsible for local variation in solar radiation, soil development, susceptibility to wind and other disturbance. We adopted the Fels and Matson (1997) system for landform modeling where combinations of slope and landscape position are used to define topographic units such as ridges, side slopes, coves, and flats on the landscape. 

GIS modeling gives us 14 ecologically significant landform classes in the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Ecoregion:

  1. Flat summit 
  2. Slope crest
  3. Upper slope Cliffs
  4. steep slopes
  5. NE facing side slope 
  6. SW facing side slopes
  7. NE facing bowls & ravines 
  8. SW facing bowls & ravines
  9. Gently sloping hills 
  10. Dry flats and valley bottoms
  11. Wet flats and wetlands 
  12. Slope bottom flats
  13. Lakes and ponds 
  14. Rivers and streams
Location
Credits
The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Conservation Science and The Nature Conservancy of Canada: Atlantic and Quebec regions
Use Constraints
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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Tags
landform, northern appalachians
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About the Map Author

2C1Forest
with Two Countries, One Forest

A Canadian-U.S. collaborative of conservation organizations, researchers, foundations and conservation-minded individuals. Our international community is focused on the protection, conservation and restoration of forests and natural heritage from New York to Nova Scotia, across the Northern...