Mangrove Override?

[jmkassak]

I am using SLAMM to model an estuary that exists at the very northern range of mangrove habitat.  The northern part of my study area can be mangrove dominated or salt marsh dominated depending on the occurrence and frequency of hard freezes.  Thus, SLAMM's decision rule to convert almost every wetland habitat type into mangrove upon inundation leaves us with nearly all lands converted to mangrove by 2100 - a highly unlikely outcome.  Is there any way to override the mangrove succession such that we can run a simulation that assumes this area to NOT be tropical (i.e., remove "mangroves" from the succession tree)?  This would allow me to compare my original results to results from a scenario in which the area is salt marsh-dominant (which might simulate what the area would like like if several hard freezes occurred over the course of the simulation).

Thanks,
Jen

[Jonathan S. Clough]

In the short run, replace all mangroves in your study area with another land-cover type.  SLAMM assumes a site to be "tropical" once mangroves make up a certain percentage of the initial condition.  In this case, inundated dry lands are assumed to convert to mangroves.

In the long run, I can send you a non-mangrove version some time in which the "tropical" boolean variable has been set to FALSE.

-- J

[jmkassak]

Thanks for the suggestion.  We'll plan to do that for one of our subsites for comparison.

Jen