NBII - Pacific Northwest - Forest Biology

Forest Biology

Many different forest ecosystems exist in the Pacific Northwest, each with its own characteristic set of organisms, processes, and relationships. Scientists are just beginning to understand the diversity of these forests, which goes far beyond the trees that dominate the overstory. This section contains data and descriptive information on biological features of Pacific Northwest forests.

Biological geospatial coverages for public lands in the Pacific Northwest can be found on our new geospatial data page

Epiphytes and Forest Management

Epiphytic lichens and mosses are an important component of forest biodiversity. This site is dedicated to the study of the effects of forest management on epiphytes.

Ecosystem Component Library

The Library is a cooperative effort by land management and ecological laboratories to develop, archive, and share plant specimens that have been indexed to a specific ecological region. These images are used to model and render landscape and ecosystem environments using advanced computer systems. Metadata for part of this project is available from this link.

Forest Mycology and Mycorrhiza Searchable Database

This database encompasses research on the taxonomy, systematics, community structure, population biology, biological diversity and ecosystem functions of forest fungi. Applications include the effects of forest disturbance and management on fungal productivity and function, and on conservation strategies for rare forest fungi.

New Forest Portal from the Convention on Biological Diversity

This portal is intended to serve as a tool for facilitating the implementation of the expanded programme of work on forests, for promoting network development amongst interested Parties, governments and stakeholders, and as a way of reviewing the implementation of the expanded work programme. The portal will also provide the opportunity for users to report on relevant case studies and best practices.

Forestry Images

Over 3,500 images of more than 800 insects, diseases, plants, wildlife, and management practices are downloadable and can be copied and used for any non-profit, educational purpose.

Olympic National Park cryptogam plant species database Searchable Database

The Olympic Field Station manages a database containing 17,000 non-vascular cryptogam collections and observations on the Olympic Peninsula in NW Washington (largely Olympic National Park). These data were compiled from ongoing FRESC studies, nearly 5000 specimens in the Olympic National Park Herbarium, and from personal collections by Martin Hutten. This database, when put on line, will provide other agencies with data on species occurrence, abundance, geographical and elevational distribution (displayed graphically), macro and microhabitat requirements and other data of nearly 1000 lichens, mosses, and liverworts. Many of these species are rare, listed in WNHP or in the ROD, and several species are new to Washington or the Pacific Northwest. Detailed close photography of over 300 different species are available electronically.

Oregon Biodiversity Project

The Biodiversity Partnership is an alliance of organizations and individuals involved in cooperative efforts to conserve Oregon’s biological diversity. The partnership was created to carry on the work of the Oregon Biodiversity Project. The project pioneered a new, collaborative approach to conservation planning that produced a big-picture view of conservation priorities for Oregon’s native species and the habitats and ecosystems that support them. To learn more about Oregon's ecosystems, or to order a data CD data sets used in the Oregon Biodiversity Project, plus visualization software visit the Project website.

OSU Herbarium Collections Searchable Databases

The Oregon State University Herbarium has its Mycological Types and Vascular Plant Type collections available in an on-line searchable database.

Plants and Fungi of the Oregon Research Forest Searchable Databases

This Web page is dedicated to the biodiversity of the McDonald-Dunn Research Forest. The Research Forest is managed by the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. These two databases contain the species that have been reported from McDonald-Dunn Research Forest.

The Oregon Coalition of Interdisciplinary Databases Searchable Databases

Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering (NASCE) has made accessible a wide variety of biological databases for researchers at Oregon State University.

This site is developed and maintained by the Fire and Mountain Ecology Lab,the
USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, the University of Washington,
and the Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering

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