Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #336665
Title: The role of data and inference in the development and application of ecological site concepts and state-and-transition models

Author
item Karl, Jason
item TALBOT, CURTIS - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA)

Submitted to: Rangelands
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/23/2016
Publication Date: 12/25/2016
Citation: Karl, J.W., Talbot, C. 2016. The role of data and inference in the development and application of ecological site concepts and state-and-transition models. Rangelands. 38:322-328.

Interpretive Summary: Information contained in ESDs and STMs is crucial to effective land management, and as such is needed now. There is not time (or money) to employ a traditional research approach (i.e., hypothetico-deductive) to addressing the unknowns in developing and documenting ecological site concepts. Accordingly, an abductive-reasoning approach that relies on best available knowledge and research to develop initial ecological site concepts that are then tested with available data is the quickest and surest way to providing usable products to land managers. Under such an abductive approach, ecological site concepts are never viewed as final, but only the best representation that is supported by available knowledge and data. The natural result of this way of thinking is that products like ESDs and STMs should continually be tested and improved as new data become available.

Technical Abstract: Information embodied in ecological site descriptions and their state-and-transition models is crucial to effective land management, and as such is needed now. There is not time (or money) to employ a traditional research-based approach (i.e., inductive/deductive, hypothesis driven inference) to addressing the unknowns in developing and documenting ecological site concepts. We propose that the development of ecological site products is a dynamic task of defining concepts and processes that best explain the available data (i.e., abductive reasoning), and as such a more iterative approach to their development is needed than is currently used. Under the proposed approach, ecological site concepts are never viewed as final, but only the best representation that is supported by available knowledge and data. The natural result of this way of thinking is that products like ESDs and STMs should continually be tested and improved as new data become available.