About LANDIS Landscape Disturbance and Succession model

Contact: Brian Sturtevant and Eric Gustafson

LANDIS is designed to model forest succession, disturbance (including fire, wind, harvesting, insects, global change), and seed dispersal across large (>1 million ha) landscapes.  LANDIS represents landscapes as a grid of cells and tracks age cohorts of each species (presence/absence or biomass) rather than individual trees.  LANDIS simulates distinct ecological processes, allowing complex interactions to play out as emergent properties of the simulation.

Background

LANDIS development began in the early 1990s under the direction of Dr. David Mladenoff, with partial funding from the Northern Research Station, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Dr. Hong He joined the team in the late 1990s followed by Dr. Robert Scheller several years later. There are two currently supported versions of LANDIS which were developed with primary funding from the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service.

LANDIS 4.0 is a fully modular software product with improved fire simulation and new capabilities for simulating fuel accumulation and decomposition and disturbance by biological agents such as insects and disease. Dr. He led the development of this version at the University of Missouri in collaboration with the Northern Research Station in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

LANDIS-II is a completely re-engineered version developed at the Forest Landscape Ecology Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison, in collaboration with the Northern Research Station in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. LANDIS-II was designed to advance forest landscape simulation modeling in many respects. Most significantly, LANDIS-II

• allows for the incorporation of ecosystem processes and states (e.g., live biomass accumulation) at broad spatial scales
• has flexible time steps for every process,
• and uses an advanced architecture that will significantly increase collaborative potential.

Some LANDIS-II Features:

• Variable time steps (1 - 40 years) for each extension (disturbance, succession, and output), to be determined by the user.  Users can mix-and-match time steps. For example: succession could be decadal and fire annual or both succession and fire could run at an annual time step.
• Calculation of aboveground live and dead biomass will be encapsulated within an optional extension. An extension that is logically consistent with the original LANDIS cohort structure (species-age) will remain available.
• A re-organized and simplified user interface. This includes new formats for inputting initial landscape data, new file formats for managing scenarios, and new file formats for user input data. Input data will be extensively and automatically checked for errors. A graphical user interface will be provided in 2007.
• An on-line database of extensions will be available for download. Browse for new or updated extensions, share your extensions, etc.
• Programmed natively as separate modules, allowing rapid development of new or alternative extensions (modules) for disturbance, reproduction/seed dispersal, succession, and output.
• Extensions are dynamically loadable (aka Plug-and-Play). Compilation is not necessary to use new or different extensions. Nor is compilation necessary to add new variables to the landscape, new species variables, or new ecoregion variables.
• Developed using a standardized development method (Unified Process) and rigorous unit testing.
• LANDIS-II is open source.

Documentation and Downloads

Software Availability
LANDIS 4.0 Software is available from the School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri at http://web.missouri.edu/~umcsnrlandis/
LANDIS II Software is available from the Forest Ecology Laboratory, University of Wisconsin at http://www.landis-ii.org/

NRS Authored Publications

Title	Author	Year
Simulating impacts of invasive plants in southern Appalachian landscapes using LANDIS	Xi, Weimin; Lafon, Charles W.; Cairns, David M.; Waldron, John D.; Tchakerian, Maria D.; Klepzig, Kier D.; Coulston, Robert N.	2009
Modeling fire and other disturbance processes using LANDIS	Shifley, Stephen R.; Yang, Jian; He, Hong	2009
Border Lakes land-cover classification	Bauer, Marvin; Loeffelholz, Brian; Shinneman, Doug.	2009
Studying fire mitigation strategies in multi-ownership landscapes: balancing the management of fire-dependent ecosystems and fire risk	Sturtevant, Brian R.; Miranda, Brian R.; Yang, Jian; He, Hong S.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Scheller, Robert M.	2009
Influence of forest planning alternatives on landscape pattern and ecosystem processes in northern Wisconsin, USA	Zollner, Patrick A.; Roberts, L. Jay; Gustafson, Eric J.; He, Hong S.; Radeloff, Volker	2008
Simulated effects of climate change, fragmentation, and inter-specific competition on tree species migration in northern Wisconsin, USA	Scheller, Robert M.; Mladenoff, David J.	2008
Comparing effects of fire modeling methods on simulated fire patterns and succession: a case study in the Missouri Ozarks	Yang, Jian; He, Hong S.; Sturtevant, Brian R.; Miranda, Brian R.; Gustafson, Eric J.	2008
Spatial controls of occurrence and spread of wildfires in the Missouri Ozark Highlands	Yang, Jian; He, Hong S.; Shifley, Stephen R.	2008
Design, development, and application of LANDIS-II, a spatial landscape simulation model with flexible temporal and spatial resolution	Scheller, Robert M.; Domingo, James B.; Sturtevant, Brian R.; Williams, Jeremy S.; Rudy, Arnold; Gustafson, Eric J.; Mladenoff, David J.	2007
Simulated effects of forest management alternatives on landscape structure and habitat suitability in the Midwestern United States	Shifley, Stephen R.; Thompson, Frank R., III; Dijak, William D.; Larson, Michael A.; Millspaugh, Joshua J.	2006
Modeling forest harvesting effects on landscape pattern in the Northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens	Radeloff, Volker C.; Mladenoff, David J.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Scheller, Robert M.; Zollner, Patrick A.; Heilman, Hong S.; Akcakaya, H. Resit	2006
Modeling the Influence of Dynamic Zoning of Forest Harvesting on Ecological Succession in a Northern Hardwoods Landscape	Zollner, Patrick A.; Gustafson, Eric J.; He, Hong S.; Radeloff, Volker C.; Mladenoff, David J.	2005
LANDIS 4.0 users guide. LANDIS: a spatially explicit model of forest landscape disturbance, management, and succession	He, Hong S.; Li, Wei; Sturtevant, Brian R.; Yang, Jian; Shang, Bo Z.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Mladenoff, David J.	2005
Latin hypercube sampling and geostatistical modeling of spatial uncertainty in a spatially explicit forest landscape model simulation	Xu, Chonggang; He, Hong S.; Hu, Yuanman; Chang, Yu; Li, Xiuzhen; Bu, Rencang	2005
A hierarchical fire frequency model to simulate temporal patterns of fire regimes in LANDIS	Yang, Jian; He, Hong S.; Gustafson, Eric J.	2004
Linking population viability, habitat suitability, and landscape simulation models for conservation planning	Larson, Michael A.; Thompson, Frank R., III; Millspaugh, Joshua J.; Dijak, William D.; Shifley, Stephen R.	2004
Simulating forest fuel and fire risk dynamics across landscapes--LANDIS fuel module design	He, Hong S.; Shang, Bo Z.; Crow, Thomas R.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Shifley, Stephen R.	2004
Influence of forest management alternatives and land type on susceptibility to fire in northern Wisconsin, USA	Gustafson, Eric J.; Zollner, Patrick A.; Sturtevant, Brian R.; Hong, S. He; Mladenoff, David J.	2004
Human influence on the abundance and connectivity of high-risk fuels in mixed forests of northern Wisconsin, USA	Sturtevant, Brian R.; Zollner, Patrick A.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Cleland, David T.	2004
Modeling disturbance and succession in forest landscapes using LANDIS: introduction	Sturtevant, Brian R.; Gustafson, Eric J.; He, Hong S.	2004
Modeling biological disturbances in LANDIS: a module description and demonstration using spruce budworm	Sturtevant, Brian R.; Gustafson, Eric J.; Li, Wei; He, Hong S.	2004
Study of landscape change under forest harvesting and climate warming-induced fire disturbance	Hong, S. He; Mladenoff, David J.; Gustafson, Eric J.	2002
Spatial simulation of forest succession and timber harvesting using LANDIS	Gustafson, Eric J.; Shifley, Stephen R.; Mladenoff, David J.; Nimerfro, Kevin K.; He, Hong S.	2000
Utilizing inventory information to calibrate a landscape simulation model	Shifley, Steven R.; Thompson, Frank R., III; Larsen, David R.; Mladenoff, David J.; Gustafson, Eric J.	2000
Model forest landscape change in the Missouri Ozarks under alternative management practices	Shifley, Stephen R.; Thompson, Frank R.; Larsen , David R.; Dijak, William D.	2000
Linking an ecosystem model and a landscape model to study forest species response to climate warming	He, Hong S.; Mladenoff, David J.; Crow, Thomas R.	1999
An object-oriented forest landscape model and its representation of tree species	He, Hong S.; Mladenoff, David J.; Boeder, Joel	1999
The effects of seed dispersal on the simulation of long-term forest landscape change	He, Hong S.; Mladenoff, David J.	1999
Spatially explicit and stochastic simulation of forest landscape fire disturbance and succession	He, Hong S.; Mladenoff, David J.	1999
Modeling forest landscape change in the Ozarks: guiding principles and preliminary implementation	Shifley, Stephen R.; Thompson, Frank R., III; Larsen, David R.; Mladenoff, David J.	1997
HOW to Identify and Control Black Walnut Mycosphaerella Leaf Spots	Kessler, Kenneth J. Jr.; Swanson, Linda B.H.	1985
Walnut Anthracnose	Berry, Frederick H.	1981

Other Publications

Title	Author	Year
Oak decline in the Boston Mountains, Arkansas, USA: Spatial and temporal patterns under two fire regimes.	Spetich, M.A.; and He, H.S.	2008

Model Participants

NRS Partners

• Brian R. Sturtevant, USDA-Forest Service- Research Ecologist
• Eric J. Gustafson, USDA-Forest Service- Research Ecologist
• Stephen R. Shifley, USDA-Forest Service- Research Forester

External Partners

• Robert M. Scheller, Conservation Biology Institute, Corvallis, Oregon
• David Mladenoff, Forest Landscape Ecology Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Hong S. He, School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri