Theses and Dissertations

Jun Zhai

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Grebner, Donals L.

Committee Member

Grala, Robert K.

Committee Member

Munn, Ian A.

Committee Member

Fan, Zhaofei

Date of Degree

8-11-2017

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Forestry

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Forest Resources

Department

Department of Forestry

Abstract

The presence and spread of invasive tree species have caused great ecological and economic damages. Previous studies usually ignored the role of socioeconomic factors and seldom treated presence and abundance as different phenomena. Using Classification and Regression Trees (CART) analysis, important driving factors affecting the presence and abundance of invasive tree species in Mississippi were identified. Then these selected important factors were spatially analyzed using a spatial lag model at the plot and county levels. The empirical results from the spatial lag model showed that: 1) presence was associated with elevation, ownership, population density and per capita annual income; 2) abundance was related to stand age, elevation, growing stock and per capita annual income. These findings suggested that socioeconomic factors besides ecological factors played a significant role and factors affecting the presence and abundance were different. Thus, management prescriptions to monitor and control invasions should depend on difference factors.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17985

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