Health of Eastern North American Sugar Maple Forests and Factors Affecting Decline

Abstract

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is a keystone species in the forests of the northeastern and midwestern United States and eastern Canada. Its sustained health is an important issue in both managed and unmanaged forests. While sugar maple generally is healthy throughout its range, decline disease of sugar maple has occurred sporadically during the past four decades; thus, it is important to understand the abiotic and biotic factors contributing to sugar maple health. Soil moisture deficiency or excess, highway deicing salts, and extreme weather events including late spring frosts, midwinter thaw/freeze cycles, glaze damage, and atmospheric deposition are the most important abiotic agents. Defoliating insects, sugar maple borer (Glycobius speciosus), Armillaria root disease, and injury from management activities represent important biotic factors. Studies of sugar maple declines over the past four decades reveal that nutrient deficiencies of magnesium, calcium, and potassium; insect defoliation; drought; and Armillaria were important predisposing, inciting, and contributing factors in sugar maple declines. Forestland managers can contribute to sustained health of sugar maple by choosing appropriate sites for its culture, monitoring stress events, and examining soil nutrition.

Response to CO2 enrichment of understory vegetation in the shade of forests

“…Differences among FACE experiments in the responses of overstory LAI to elevated CO 2 (Norby & Zak, 2011) may have been the dominant factor determining the response of the understory vegetation. However, intensive forest management, such as prescribed burning, thinning, and various intensities of harvests, as well as disturbances from climate events, diseases, and insects, alter the amount and composition of understory vegetation directly or by changing the availability of light and other growth resources (Harrington & Edwards, 1999;Lieffers et al, 1999;Horsley et al, 2002;McCarthy et al, 2006McCarthy et al, , 2007Morin et al, 2007). As has been shown recently for the overwhelming effects of legacy on eastern US forest composition relative to effects of climate change (Nowacki & Abrams, 2015), such prescribed and natural events may allow a response to elevated atmospheric CO 2 not observed at the Duke FACE experiment, where forest management was limited to establishment.…”

Influences of a Calcium Gradient on Soil Inorganic Nitrogen in the Adirondack Mountains, New York

“…Beech trees are generally regarded to be less sensitive than sugar maple to growth on sites with reduced soil Ca concentrations (Duchesne et al 2005). Arii and Lechowicz (2002) found that the relative dominance of beech was inversely related to soil Manuscript (Horsley et al 2002, Bailey et al 2004) and red spruce (Picea rubens; Shortle and Smith 1988) has been linked to low soil Ca concentrations. Litter quality can vary substantially among plant taxa , Berg and McClaugherty 1987, Ollinger et al 2002, influencing the chemical quality of substrate available for N mineralization and nitrification (Knoepp and Swank 1998.…”

“…The availability of Ca in the soil can influence plant species composition (Bigelow andCanham 2002, McGee et al 2007), and species composition can in turn affect soil chemistry Giardina 1998, van Breemen andFinzi 1998). Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) tends to grow best on fertile, well-drained sites with relatively high Ca concentrations (Horsley et al 2002, Kobe et al 2002. In a study of old-growth forests in Upper Michigan, Fujinuma et al (2005) indicated that both sugar maple and American basswood (Tilia americana) have relatively high demands for base cations including Ca and magnesium (Mg).…”

Implications of Sodium Mass Balance for Interpreting the Calcium Cycle of a Forested Ecosystem

“…The extent of this phenomenon and its ecological consequences in terms of forest productivity and ecosystem function are topics of much current research (Binkley and Hogberg 1997, Markewitz et al 1998, McLauglin and Wimmer 1999, Driscoll et al 2001. In particular, Ca has been shown to affect cold tolerance of red spruce (DeHayes et al 1997), to be a predisposing factor in sugar maple multiple stress syndrome (Horsley et al 2002), and to be important in regulating ecosystem processes such as formation and stabilization of soil organic matter (Oyonarte et al 1994), litter decomposition (Ulrich and Matzner 1986), and acid-base status of soils (van Bree-3 E-mail: swbailey@fs.fed.us man et al 1983, Binkley andRichter 1987) and aquatic habitats (Baker and Christensen 1991). A general lack of coupled long-term soil and ecosystem studies contributes to scientific uncertainty about the nature and extent of soil dynamics (Richter and Markewitz 2001) and resulting impacts on ecosystem structure and function.…”