Structural Characteristics and Recruitment Dynamics of Old-Growth Red Spruce-Northern Hardwoods Mixedwood Forests

Structural Characteristics and Recruitment Dynamics of Old-Growth Red Spruce-Northern Hardwoods Mixedwood Forests
Author: Jordan T. Luff
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2024
Genre: Forests and forestry
ISBN:
GET BOOK

Download Structural Characteristics and Recruitment Dynamics of Old-Growth Red Spruce-Northern Hardwoods Mixedwood Forests Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Mixedwoods forests occur in temperate forests around the world, providing unique ecological, economic, and cultural benefits, but there are key knowledge gaps on their natural dynamics and development pathways. In northeastern North America, records and studies show that red spruce was once a common component of northern hardwoods in this region; however, historic selective harvesting has greatly reduced the preponderance of these mixedwood ecosystems. Given the narrow regeneration niche of red spruce and the various anthropogenic and natural disturbances that have reduced this species, significant challenges exist to the restoration of red spruce-northern hardwoods mixedwoods. To address this challenge, our study characterized the structure and composition of two old-growth mixedwoods stands, Township 40 of Adirondack Park in New York and the Bowl Natural Area of White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.We used dendroecological data from large, stem-mapped plots to reconstruct the natural disturbance pathways of these forests to inform techniques for restoring and sustaining red spruce-northern hardwood forests into the future. At Township 40, red spruce was the second most abundant species, occupied 58.1% of the dominant and codominant crown classes, and had an importance value (IV) of 22.5%. At the Bowl, red spruce was the most abundant species, occupied 81.4% of the dominant and codominant crown classes, and had an IV of 37.3%. Large trees (stems [greater than or equal to]50 cm DBH) made up 30-33% of the basal area at each site and were predominantly comprised of yellow birch and red spruce. Red spruce dominated the sapling layer (stems 2.54-9.9 cm DBH) at both sites. Snags (standing dead trees) and coarse woody material (CWM) were also abundant, with Township 40 having 237 snags/ha and average CWM volume of 94.5 m3/ha and the Bowl containing 110 snags/ha and average CWM volume of 99.1 m3/ha. There was no evidence of stand-replacing disturbance at either site. The mean decadal rate of canopy loss at both sites was 6.3% with decadal canopy loss

Post-fire Recovery and Successional Dynamics of an Old-growth Red Spruce Forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Post-fire Recovery and Successional Dynamics of an Old-growth Red Spruce Forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
Author: Adam R. Krustchinsky
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:
GET BOOK

Download Post-fire Recovery and Successional Dynamics of an Old-growth Red Spruce Forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Red spruce is a shade-tolerant conifer whose distribution and abundance reflect Quaternary climate history as well as natural and anthropogenic disturbances. This species once extended further south than its present localities, because of natural and anthropogenic disturbances such as logging, windthrow, and fire. Little is known about the disturbance regime of this species, because long term stand dynamics are difficult to obtain. This-long lived species is hypothesized to be suffering a decline in radial growth, density and abundance at the present time. Recent research suggests pollution, biotic stresses, climate change and natural stand dynamics are the driving forces behind these decreases. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of fire in a mesic ecosystem, specifically a high-elevation red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) forest on Whitetop Mountain in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Six plots were established in a high elevation red spruce stand to characterize the stand composition. Tree ring data were collected to investigate radial growth relations to inter-annual climatic variability and cross-sections were used to investigate fire history. Red spruce continued to establish throughout the 19th century until a severe fire occurred in 1919 and caused a new cohort of yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.) to establish within the stand. Logging and fire caused high mortality in the stand, yet many spruce remain that outdate the past disturbances. Red spruce saplings continue to persist in the stand, showing regeneration despite the abundant hardwoods. Moisture was the main contributing factor to red spruce growth in the dendroclimatic analysis. Red spruce radial growth was significantly correlated to high precipitation and low temperatures of the previous growing season, which is similar to recent research results. This study collaborates the current literature on red spruce growth along with the results found here in creating a model to represent the growth characteristics of red spruce when inter-mixed with hardwoods after a severe disturbance.

Accelerating the Development of Old-growth Characteristics in Second-growth Northern Hardwoods

Accelerating the Development of Old-growth Characteristics in Second-growth Northern Hardwoods
Author: Karin S. Fassnacht
Publisher:
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2015
Genre: Afforestation
ISBN:
GET BOOK

Download Accelerating the Development of Old-growth Characteristics in Second-growth Northern Hardwoods Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Active management techniques that emulate natural forest disturbance and stand development processes have the potential to enhance species diversity, structural complexity, and spatial heterogeneity in managed forests, helping to meet goals related to biodiversity, ecosystem health, and forest resilience in the face of uncertain future conditions. There are a number of steps to complete before, during, and after deciding to use active management for this purpose. These steps include specifying objectives and identifying initial targets, recognizing and addressing contemporary stressors that may hinder the ability to meet those objectives and targets, conducting a pretreatment evaluation, developing and implementing treatments, and evaluating treatments for success of implementation and for effectiveness after application. In this report we discuss these steps as they may be applied to second-growth northern hardwood forests in the northern Lake States region, using our experience with the ongoing managed old-growth silvicultural study (MOSS) as an example. We provide additional examples from other applicable studies across the region.

Long-term Stand Development and Demographic Sustainability of Tree Populations in Northern Hardwood Forests

Long-term Stand Development and Demographic Sustainability of Tree Populations in Northern Hardwood Forests
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:
GET BOOK

Download Long-term Stand Development and Demographic Sustainability of Tree Populations in Northern Hardwood Forests Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An understanding of trajectories in long-term forest development is essential for examining several fundamental issues in forest ecology and management. Long-term forest development has important implications for issues as diverse as forest productivity, carbon storage, biological diversity, and ecological forestry methods. While much has been learned from studies of old-growth forests, a limitation is that these have necessarily been brief snapshots of species composition and forest structure at one point in time from which accurate trends are difficult to infer. The overarching themes of this dissertation are the long-term trajectory of forest development and the impact of the historic natural disturbance regime on that trajectory. Specific objectives were: (1) to quantify long-term trends in above-ground tree biomass and stand structure in northern hardwood forests, and effects of the natural disturbance regime, (2) to estimate the frequency of structural stand stages, along with residence times and transition rates among stages, under several disturbance regimes, and (3) to develop a quantitative approach to evaluating demographic sustainability of tree populations under several conditions, including those of restricted recruitment. Computer simulation with the CANOPY model was used to clarify long-term trends. However, to the extent possible, these model predictions were verified against available field data, including an extensive field survey and a 30-year record of change on permanent plots in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. Major conclusions from this work were: (1) The Bormann-Likens hypothesis of a peak in biomass followed by a decline to a lower level was largely supported by both simulation and field data. The asymptotic biomass trend documented in recent chronosequences may be a consequence of using maximum tree age to estimate stand age. (2) The majority of landscapes of old-growth northern hardwoods is occupied by non-equilibrium stands, but nearly 1/3 was also structurally indistinguishable from steady state. Individual stands were highly dynamic, spending only a few decades in any structural stage. (3) Minimum sustainable tree populations had a variable slope in their size distribution. Enforcing a shallow fixed slope in understory trees typical of those used in uneven-aged management for larger trees rendered the stand unsustainable.