JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Ecological Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ecology.Abstract. Little is known of the factors that engendered the classic pine forests of Michigan in the period before settlement by Europeans. Some of the forests were relatively open savannas of jack pine and red pine. Other stands were composed of large red and white pines, occasionally with an admixture of hemlock and hardwoods. The early Government Land Office Survey records of Roscommon and Crawford Counties were used to determine the composition and the disturbance history of the pine forests of northern lower Michigan. The abundance of pine (mainly Pinus banksiana, P. resinosa, and P. strobus) in this area that was between lobes of the Wisconsin Laurentide ice sheet was correlated with the presence of coarse-textured soils derived from outwash and ice-contact deposits. These soils promoted a vegetation type which was extremely susceptible to fire. Records suggest the average return time for severe crown fires ranged from 80 yr in the case of the jack pine forest type to 120-240 yr for the mixed pine type to 1200 yr for the hemlock-white pine-northern hardwoods type. Blowdowns had a much longer return time and reached their greatest frequency in the swamp conifer and hemlock-white pine-northern hardwoods types. A three-dimensional diagram summarizes the role of fire, windthrow, substrate, and topography in the formation of Michigan's pine forests.
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