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ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES in rocky mountain coniferous ...

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Figure 7.--Matrix of <strong>in</strong>teractions between vegetation and<br />

environmentaZ characterCstics.<br />

Our primary objective is to predict the status of vegetation at some later<br />

time, but because all the other environmental factors may be chang<strong>in</strong>g, it is neces-<br />

sary to predict their status as well. Thus, the <strong>in</strong>tegration process becomes one of<br />

assess<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>fluence of each environmental factor on each recognized plant species<br />

or type, and "<strong>in</strong>tegrat<strong>in</strong>g" across the respective rows to determ<strong>in</strong>e the new status of<br />

vegetation at some later time, t + At. Likewise, we must "<strong>in</strong>tegrate down" each<br />

column to obta<strong>in</strong> the new status of the particular environmental factor at the time<br />

t + At. These new values then serve as "<strong>in</strong>puts" to a new matrix represent<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

status at time t + At, and the process is repeated (fig. 8).<br />

L Etc.<br />

Figure 8.--Suecessiue prediction scheme.

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