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- Title
Changes in Presettlement Forest Composition for Five Areas in the Central Hardwood Forest, 1784-1990.
- Authors
Rentch, James S.; Hicks,Jr., Ray R.
- Abstract
Witness tree tallies from early land surveys show that presettlement forests in eastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, and north central West Virginia were oak-dominated forests. Quercus alba was dominant by a large margin - at minimum, twice as abundant as Q. velutina, the second ranked species. Acer saccha rum and Fagus grandifolia were among the top ten ranked species at each site; however, their importance value was consistently less than one-third the value for Q. alba. Quercus rubra, Q. prinus, Castanea dentata, and A. rubrum were relatively minor components of presettlement forests, rarely ranked among the 10 most abundant tree species. Where diameter-distribution data were available, results show that oaks were well distributed among all but the smallest size classes, suggesting that oak replacement was a stable feature of these forests. Multiple response pennutation procedure- analysis of presettlement and modern U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory analysis (HA) data shows a clear separation by historical period. Modern inventories consistently show a significant decline in Q. alba abundance and a large increase for A. rubrum. Other early successional species such as Prunus serotina, Liriodendron tulij$fera, and Fraxinus americana showed large increases, although this trend varied somewhat among the sites studied. The species composition of presettlement forests suggests a highly variable disturbance regime in which a variety of species with different life history strategies, disturbance tolerances, and growth requirements shared overstory position. Changes in species dominance over the time period reviewed suggest that 20th century reduction in fire frequency resulted in reduced oak abundance and accelerated recruitment of fire intolerant species.
- Subjects
UNITED States; TREES; FORESTS &; forestry; AMERICAN chestnut; OAK; BLACK cherry
- Publication
Natural Areas Journal, 2005, Vol 25, Issue 3, p228
- ISSN
0885-8608
- Publication type
Article