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Abstract
The effects of timber-harvesting and wildfires on the vegetated landscape were compared using 1999 color infrared Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quads (DOQQs) for Sapelo Island, Georgia. ERDAS Imagine 8.5 was used to sub-set and classify the DOQQs for analysis using ArcView 3.2, the Patch Analyst extension and the FRAGSTATS interface. The landscape metric variables that were produced from FRAGSTATS were analyzed using a multiple one-way ANOVA, Tukeys multiple range test. The results from this study indicate that shelterwood timber-harvesting and wildfires are having a similar effect on the vegetated landscape of Sapelo Island. Both disturbances increase the landscape fragmentation, patch uniformity and core area edges but decrease the relative variation in patch size and interior core area.