Impacts and management implications of ice storms on forests in the southern United States

Bragg, Don C.; Shelton, Michael G.; Zeide, Boris

doi:10.1016/s0378-1127(03)00230-5

Cited by 115 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 77 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These disturbances selectively remove or kill neighbors from the local environment of residual trees and can, therefore, influence interactions among individuals and the local environment-growth relationship (Hartmann & Messier 2011). Important types of natural disturbances are snow and ice storms (Bragg et al 2003). The resulting tree damages, such as breakage of stems or crown, cause shifts of the light regime of the forest stand, predominantly towards an increased spatial heterogeneity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local neighborhood competition following an extraordinary snow break event: implications for tree-individual growth

Lang¹,

Bruelheide²,

Oheimb³

2014

iForest

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sustainable forest management practices and the increased interest of plantation forestry in species mixtures require an understanding of individual-tree growth in complex and diverse forests. Individual-tree growth has been found to be affected by factors such as species identity and size of the target tree as well as of neighboring trees, neighbor density and abiotic factors. However, most of these studies have been conducted in plantations or mixed forests with a very limited number of species. We conducted our study in a subtropical forest in China, which was very species rich and highly heterogeneous with regard to topography (slope inclination and aspect, elevation) and successional status. Prior to our study the forest was subjected to an exceptional snow break event. We asked whether individual-tree basal area increment (BAI) over three growing seasons following the snow break event was related to local biotic and abiotic conditions. We hypothesized that individual-tree BAI is negatively affected by local neighborhood competition, positively affected by local neighborhood diversity, negatively related to slope inclination, and positively related to aspect to south. Individual-tree BAI of four different species was mainly affected by tree size, local neighborhood competition and species identity. Contrary to our expectations, we did not observe significant effects of local neighborhood functional diversity and abiotic conditions. However, we did find a negative effect of plot functional diversity on BAI. This finding may be explained by a negative correlation of plot functional diversity and snow break damage, which was observed in mid- and late-successional stages. The disturbance event did considerably change the competitive local neighborhood interactions by reducing competition, which increased the BAI of target trees in more disturbed/more diverse plots

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local neighborhood competition following an extraordinary snow break event: implications for tree-individual growth

Lang¹,

Bruelheide²,

Oheimb³

2014

iForest

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…During the December 12-13 ice storm, ice accumulation was greatest in northern Arkansas and ranged from 7.6 to 15.2 cm. During the December 25-28 storm, 3.8-7.6 cm of ice accumulated from west central Arkansas to southeast Oklahoma (Bragg et al 2003). The predominant wind direction was from the east and northeast.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The meteorological conditions during the ice storm and biophysical makeup of the forested landscape influence the severity of damage and the spatial extent of the disturbance (Huston 1994, Foster et al 1997, Wickham et al 2000, Turner 2005. Ice storms are commonly characterized by duration, total ice accumulation, and the period of time the geographic area retains accumulated ice (Bragg et al 2003). An ice storm event is defined as ice accumulation of at least 0.6 cm (Irland 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice storms generate spatially heterogeneous damage patterns at the watershed scale in forested landscapes

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The effects of large-scale disturbances play a pivotal role in shaping ecosystem structure and function. Interactions between disturbances and a multitude of biophysical factors at different scales generate spatially heterogeneous patterns of damage on vegetated landscapes. However, research on largescale disturbances is often conducted at one spatial extent because of the challenges associated with quantifying patterns of damage in vegetation across multiple spatial extents. Consequently, the literature has identified many different and often conflicting biophysical controls of vegetation damage, which is likely a consequence of the historical and spatial contingency of particular geographic locations. We investigated the influence of biophysical factors and spatial extent of ice storm damage patterns across the entire Ouachita National Forest and in 65 individual watersheds. This allowed for an assessment of how spatial extent and contingency might influence statistical results and therefore any conclusions drawn from these analyses. Two pre-and post-storm Landsat 7 ETMþ scenes (October 6, 1999 and September 25, 2001) were acquired to map ice storm damage based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) change. Field sites verified the relationship between NDVI and actual forest damage from the storms. We derived topographic variables from a digital elevation model (DEM) and biological variables from GAPgenerated data. The relationship between ice storm damage patterns and biophysical factors across the entire national forest landscape was weak. However, the relationship between damage severity, topography, and forest type increased significantly at the watershed scale, though the specific variable displaying the strongest influence varied by individual watershed. This research demonstrates that complex topography and biological factors interact with the meteorological characteristics of ice storms to generate spatially heterogeneous damage patterns in forests at the watershed scale. It is likely that the damage patterns corresponding to a particular watershed will be repeated during future disturbances.

show abstract

“…Ice storms periodically disturb southern pine forests in southern United States and have strong damaging effects on more northern portion of pine forests (Bragg et al 2003). Ice storms occur from October through April.…”

Section: Natural Disturbancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ice storms annually result in millions of dollars in loss. In extreme cases that occur once every 10 to 20 years, ice storms have the potential to cause losses in the billions of dollars (Bragg et al 2003).…”

Section: Natural Disturbancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoration of Southern Pine Forests After the Southern Pine Beetle

Waldron

Cairns

et al. 2012

A Goal-Oriented Approach to Forest Landscape Restoration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Impacts and management implications of ice storms on forests in the southern United States

Cited by 115 publications

References 77 publications

Local neighborhood competition following an extraordinary snow break event: implications for tree-individual growth

Local neighborhood competition following an extraordinary snow break event: implications for tree-individual growth

Ice storms generate spatially heterogeneous damage patterns at the watershed scale in forested landscapes

Restoration of Southern Pine Forests After the Southern Pine Beetle

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About