Biomass and production of southern Appalachian cove forests reexamined

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 760-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.T. Busing ◽  
E.E.C. Clebsch ◽  
P.S. White
Keyword(s):  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Biomass Accumulation ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Smoky Mountains ◽  
Cove Forests

Aboveground biomass and aboveground net primary production (ANPP) were determined for leaf, branch, and bole compartments of cove forests in the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. The sample plots included young stands (42-63 years following agricultural abandonment) and old stands with no history of logging or catastrophic fire. Tree species, diameter at breast height (DBH), and 10-year radial growth increment data were collected on plots of 0.4–1.0 ha. Biomass was estimated with species-specific allometric equations for the Great Smoky Mountains and eastern Tennessee. ANPP was estimated using diameter growth measurements to determine biomass accumulation over the preceding 10-year interval. Biomass estimates for the predominantly deciduous old-growth stands ranged from 326 to 394 Mg•ha−1 on plots ≥ 0.4 ha. These were consistently greater than the corresponding estimates of 216–277 Mg•ha−1 for young stands. The old Tsuga-dominated stands had the highest biomass estimates of 415–471 Mg•ha−1 for 1.0-ha plots. Annual ANPP estimates were high (11.7–13.1 Mg•ha−1) among the young stands. These stands had particularly high bolewood production. ANPP of the old-growth plots ≥ 0.4 ha ranged from 6.3 to 8.6 Mg•ha−1•year−1 for the deciduous stands and 8.0–10.1 Mg•ha−1•year−1 for the coniferous–deciduous stands. Previous biomass estimates for primeval cove forests were well above temperate forest means of 300–350 Mg•ha−1. Our estimates based on larger plots were lower than previous estimates of 500–610 Mg•ha−1, but they still exceeded temperate forest means. Our deciduous values were 26–94 Mg•ha−1 above the temperate deciduous forest mean of 300 Mg•ha−1, and our Tsuga–deciduous values were 65–121 Mg•ha−1 above the temperate coniferous forest mean of 350 Mg•ha−1.

Gradient analysis of old spruce – fir forests of the Great Smoky Mountains circa 1935

1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 951-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.T. Busing ◽  
P.S. White ◽  
M.D. MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Gradient Analysis ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Abies Fraseri ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Smoky Mountains

The response of old-growth spruce – fir vegetation to environmental gradients was investigated using 1930s plot data from the Great Smoky Mountains. Gradients related to forest composition and position of the ecotone with the deciduous forest were identified using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and their role in vegetation response to climate change was considered. The data were subsequently stratified into three elevation classes and ordinated separately using CCA to identify gradients at various elevations. The effect of elevation on tree stratum composition and structure was profound. Secondary gradients influencing the tree stratum included slope aspect, potential solar radiation, and topographic position. Abies fraseri basal area and density were high above 1800 m elevation. Comparable basal area levels of Picea rubens were attained at elevations ranging from 1400 to 1900 m. Total stand basal area and density increased with elevation. The importance of topographic position increased with elevation, while that of slope aspect and potential solar radiation decreased. Presumably, the increasing incidence of cloud cover with elevation diminished the effect of slope aspect and potential solar radiation at higher elevations. The transition from deciduous forest occurred in the 1300 – 1600 m elevation range. A substantial proportion (24%) of plots had mixed composition (30 – 70% spruce – fir by basal area), suggesting that the ecotone is not abrupt in old-growth forest. Environmental variables other than elevation did not have a strong effect on ecotone position. Attempts to infer long-term ecotone dynamics along the elevation gradient based on species size-class data were inconclusive. Key words: Abies fraseri, gradient analysis, Great Smoky Mountains, old-growth forest, Picea rubens, spruce – fir forest.

scholarly journals Discrimination of canopy gaps and non-regenerating openings in old-growth temperate deciduous forests using airborne LiDAR data

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 774-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Senécal ◽  
Frédérik Doyon ◽  
Benoît St-Onge
Keyword(s):  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Canopy Gaps ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Tree Establishment ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Predictive Variables ◽  
Temperate Deciduous ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forests ◽  
Study Sites

The use of LiDAR in the study of gap regimes has seen significant progress in recent years. Researchers have assumed that canopy gaps detected in this manner are ecologically equivalent to gaps sampled in situ by more traditional methods. However, those latter methods usually include canopy gaps only and ignore non-regenerating openings that are produced by causes limiting tree establishment. We developed a predictive model capable of discriminating between canopy gaps and non-regenerating openings using LiDAR-derived data. Selected predictive variables were related to conditions that limit tree establishment such as zones of moisture accumulation and steep slopes or to the resulting vegetation physiognomy. The model was applied to three old-growth maple forests to predict the fractions of canopy openings belonging to these two types. On average, non-regenerating openings represented 19.5% of the total area detected as canopy openings and occupied 1.37% of the sites. Canopy gaps formed 80.5% of the total area in canopy openings and covered 5.71% of sites that were studied. The non-regenerating opening seemed more frequent on thin surficial deposits. The canopy gap fraction was similar among study sites but had lower values than usually reported for temperate deciduous forest.

Biometric based estimates of net primary production (NPP) in a cool-temperate deciduous forest stand beneath a flux tower

2005 ◽  
Vol 134 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 27-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiyuki Ohtsuka ◽  
Tsuyoshi Akiyama ◽  
Yasushi Hashimoto ◽  
Motoko Inatomi ◽  
Toru Sakai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Production ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Forest Stand ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Flux Tower ◽  
Cool Temperate ◽  
Temperate Deciduous

scholarly journals Does NDVI explain spatial and temporal variability in sap velocity in temperate forest ecosystems?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne J. Hoek van Dijke ◽  
Kaniska Mallick ◽  
Adriaan J. Teuling ◽  
Martin Schlerf ◽  
Miriam Machwitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Temperate Deciduous

Abstract. There is a need for a better understanding of the link between vegetation characteristics and tree transpiration to facilitate satellite derived transpiration estimation. Many studies use the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), a proxy for tree biophysical characteristics, to estimate evapotranspiration. In this study we investigated the link between sap velocity and 30 m resolution Landsat derived NDVI for twenty days during two contrasting precipitation years in a temperate deciduous forest catchment. Sap velocity was measured in the Attert catchment in Luxembourg in 25 plots of 20 × 20 m covering three geologies with sensors installed in 2–4 trees per plot. The results show that sap velocity and NDVI were significantly positively correlated in April, i.e., NDVI successfully captured the pattern of sap velocity during the phase of green-up. After green-up, a significant negative correlation was found during half of the studied days. During a dry period, sap velocity was uncorrelated to NDVI, but influenced by geology and aspect. In summary, in our study area, the correlation between sap velocity and NDVI was not constant, but varied with phenology and water availability. The same behaviour was found for the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). This suggests that methods using NDVI or EVI to predict small-scale variability in (evapo)transpiration should be carefully applied and that NDVI and EVI cannot be used to scale sap velocity to stand level transpiration in temperate forest ecosystems.

Natural disturbance and gap phase dynamics in southern Appalachian spruce–fir forests

1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter S. White ◽  
Mark D. MacKenzie ◽  
Richard T. Busing
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Canopy Gaps ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Capture Process ◽  
Canopy Density ◽  
Great Smoky Mountains ◽  
Phase Dynamics ◽  
Smoky Mountains

Spatially small canopy gaps dominated the natural disturbance regime of old-growth spruce–fir forests in the Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Tennessee. New gaps ≤200 m2 in size were formed with a frequency of 0.006 to 0.009/year and the 1- to 10-year age class of these gaps covered an estimated 6 to 17% of the study area (depending on calculation method). Sixty canopy gaps sampled on a 7-ha intensive study site ranged in size from 15 to 150 m2. Although tree replacement patterns in these gaps were unpredictable from gap size and age, the gap event was important in species interactions. The three canopy dominants, Abiesfraseri (Pursh) Poir., Picearubens Sarg., and Betulalutea Michx.f., had unique suites of life history traits. Abies reached high understory densities, but had the highest canopy turnover rate of the three species. Betula was scarce in the understory, but had a crown expansion rate in gaps eight times that of the two conifers. Picea was the longest lived species and appeared to have the best survivorship. Tree replacement models based on advanced regeneration led to the prediction that Abies canopy density would increase and Betula canopy density would decrease, while models based on gap inventories led to opposite conclusions. Data from direct observation of the gap capture process supported the hypothesis that this old-growth stand was near compositional equilibrium and underscored the importance of disturbance effects in community organization.

The Middle Pleistocene of north Birmingham

1964 ◽  
Vol 247 (741) ◽  
pp. 533-592 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Late Glacial Period ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Temperate Deciduous

The Older Drift of north Birmingham infills a system of pre-glacial valleys. Its stratigraphy has been worked out, chiefly from borehole records, showing it to comprise the deposits of two separate glaciations—the Lower and Upper Glacial Series, and an intervening Interglacial Series. It records the deposition during the Lower Glacial Series of fluvioglacial sediments followed by those of a glacial lake during the late-glacial period. A small remnant of the latter persisted into the Interglacial as a lake at Nechells and was gradually infilled with lake muds. After a temporary period of low water the level subsequently fell again, largely draining the lake which became covered with fen-wood and marsh receiving some fluviatile sediment. Other thin interglacial beds exist at Cardigan Street and possibly Washwood Heath. Elsewhere the period is represented by an unconformity. The Upper Glacial Series records the triple advance into the area of valley glaciers, accompanied by the formation of glacial lakes. In the intervening periods of retreat the valleys were receiving fluvioglacial sediment, and in one period were occupied by a second large glacial lake. A fourth advance of an ice sheet covered the area and completed the infilling of the valleys. A detailed study of the pollen and macrofossils from the Interglacial Series has enabled the reconstruction of the plant communities in the vegetation, and their succession throughout the Interglacial. This records a combination of changes due to the serai, edaphic and climatic development. Following an amelioration of climate temperate deciduous forest developed from open ‘sub-arctic’ scrub and grass/herb communities, with Alnus and Taxus later becoming locally important when the climate perhaps became wetter. Deterioration of soils during the long period of mild humid conditions led to the subsequent spread of heath and coniferous forest, which perhaps, as Abies forest, occupied the area during the period of optimum temperatures (summer). Later deterioration of the climate resulted in Pinus forests and heaths, the vegetation becoming increasingly open as the next glaciation approached. The Interglacial Series are correlated with Holsteinian interglacial sites elsewhere in Britain and on the Continent. This dates the Lower and Upper Glacial Series to the Elster and Saale Glaciations respectively, confirming their correlation with neighbouring areas.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Coarse Woody Debris in an Old-Growth Temperate Deciduous Forest

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 680-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica G. Davis ◽  
Julia I. Chapman ◽  
Shuang-Ye Wu ◽  
Ryan W. McEwan
Keyword(s):  
Coarse Woody Debris ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Woody Debris ◽  
Spatiotemporal Dynamics ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Temperate Deciduous
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