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- Title
Growth Rates of Atlantic White Cedar Depend on Hydrologic Regimes at Two Time Scales.
- Authors
Atkinson, Robert B.
- Abstract
Atlantic white cedar (AWC) stands form peat substrates in association with a seasonally flooded, saturated hydrologic regime. Less than 2% of the AWC swamp land area present during the pre-colonial era remains, and most of the current area now exhibits a temporarily flooded hydrologic regime. The purpose of this study was to quantify radial AWC growth at time scales that were cumulative (throughout ~60-year lifespans) and annual to clarify the relationship with hydrologic regime and climate in drained and undrained stands. Two 60-year-old stands having either drained or undrained conditions were selected in national wildlife refuges in Virginia and North Carolina, USA. Shallow groundwater wells fitted with continuous recorders measured depth-to-water-table during the 1999 calendar year to verify hydrologic regimes, and tree ring widths were evaluated from 54 trees per site. Cumulative time scale growth of individual tree stems was strongly suppressed by high water tables in the undrained stand. Annual growth rates among climate variables also diverged such that wetter months were positively correlated with tree ring width in the drained stand. Results suggest that AWC tree ring growth patterns can provide natural resource managers with insights into historic hydrologic conditions that influence ecosystem services and biodiversity.
- Subjects
NORTH Carolina; VIRGINIA; TREE growth; TREE-rings; CEDAR; WATER table; NATURAL resources; WILDLIFE refuges
- Publication
Wetlands, 2020, Vol 40, Issue 1, p81
- ISSN
0277-5212
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s13157-019-01212-4