Scale and frequency of natural disturbances in the northeastern US: implications for early successional forest habitats and regional age distributions

Lorimer, Craig G.; White, Alan S.

doi:10.1016/s0378-1127(03)00245-7

Cited by 221 publications

(196 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…The forests then regrew into the forests we see today. Other factors like selective harvesting, diseases/pests, and changes in forest fire management, have also affected southern New England's forests (Abrams, 2003;Lorimer & White, 2003).…”

Section: Introduction and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

TRFLP Analysis of the Effect of a Forest-to-Gap Ectone on Soil Microbial Diversity

Smith

2014

Preprint

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To investigate how soil microbial diversity is influenced by the formation of an experimental edge-creating gap within a southern New England oak-hickory forest, I used a molecular fingerprinting technique known as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP).Sequence variability in the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene in soil bacterial communities is detected by differences in the length and abundance of fragments produced by digesting PCR products amplified from rRNA genes. The different patterns observed are assumed to represent unique phylotypes.How does the forest-gap ecotone influence soil bacterial diversity? Based on other studies, Ihypothesized that the edge would contain the most diverse bacterial community, followed by the gap, and as distance from the gap into the forest increased, bacterial diversity would decrease.Soil samples were collected along 40m transects perpendicular to the northern edge of the gap.DNA was extracted from each sample, PCR was used to amplify the 16S rRNA gene, and DNA fragments were cut by restriction enzyme digestion and separated via electrophoresis. The DNA fragments were analyzed by TRFLP.Environmental variables (soil pH, soil temperature and soil gravimetric moisture) were different in the gap compared to all other distances, but not significantly so. Phylotype richness and diversity (Simpson's index) was greatest at the edge. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) produced a phylotype-by-distance ordination that supports my hypothesis and shows that the edge is an ecotone (transitional zone) between the gap and forest.

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Section: Introduction and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

TRFLP Analysis of the Effect of a Forest-to-Gap Ectone on Soil Microbial Diversity

Smith

2014

Preprint

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“…In New York and the New England states these major formations have been classified into 40 different cover types (Eyre 1980) and four type groups that collectively cover approximately 89% of the northeastern U.S. (Seymour 1995 A post-European settlement history of land-use exceeding 300 years creates a unique and complex context for application of disturbance-based forestry concepts. Forest cover, composition, age class distribution, and structure in the northern hardwood region have changed dramatically since the 17th and 18th centuries (Cogbill et al 2002;Lorimer and White 2003). Geophysical heterogeneity, climate variability, and disturbances, which included aboriginal clearing and burning, maintained a dynamic and diverse landscape in which forest structure and composition were spatially and temporally variable (Foster and Aber 2004).…”

Section: Northern Hardwood Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geophysical heterogeneity, climate variability, and disturbances, which included aboriginal clearing and burning, maintained a dynamic and diverse landscape in which forest structure and composition were spatially and temporally variable (Foster and Aber 2004). The landscape was nevertheless dominated by late-successional and old-growth forests (uneven-aged, >150 years in age), with young forests (up to 15 years old) representing <1-13% of the landscape on average (Lorimer and Frelich 1994;Lorimer and White 2003). Nineteenth century clearing, followed by land abandonment, secondary forest redevelopment on old-fields, and 20th century forest management, resulted in the current predominance of young to mature forests.…”

Section: Northern Hardwood Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet in the northern hardwood region there are questions regarding whether landscape scale age class distributions should be shifted closer to that associated with natural disturbance regimes (Lorimer and White 2003;Keeton 2006). Given the current over abundance of young to mature stands, an artifact of land-use history, this would require a greater emphasis on management for late-successional forest characteristics.…”

Section: Northern Hardwood Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the current over abundance of young to mature stands, an artifact of land-use history, this would require a greater emphasis on management for late-successional forest characteristics. Late-successional forests are dramatically under-represented relative to HRV (Lorimer and White 2003). Others have advocated managing for early-successional forest habitats due to declines in some disturbance dependent wildlife species.…”

Section: Northern Hardwood Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes: an Emerging Approach for Sustainable Forest Management

North

Keeton²

Patterns and Processes in Forest Landscapes

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Sustainable forest management integrates ecological, social, and economic objectives. To achieve the former, researchers and practitioners are modifying silvicultural practices based on concepts from successional and landscape ecology to provide a broader array of ecosystem functions than is associated with conventional approaches. One such innovation is disturbance-based management. Under this approach, forest practices that emulate natural ecological processes, such as local disturbance regimes, are viewed as more likely to perpetuate the evolutionary environment and ecosystem functions of the forest matrix. We examine how this concept has been applied in three U.S. forest types: Pacific Northwest temperate coniferous, Western mixed-conifer, and Northeastern northern hardwood forests. In general, stand-level treatments have been widely used and often closely mimic historic disturbance because forest structure and composition guidelines have been well defined from reconstructive research. Disturbance-based landscape management, however, has not yet been closely approximated in the three forest types we examined. Landscape implementation has been constrained by economic, ownership, safety, and practical limitations. Given these constraints we suggest that disturbancebased management concepts are best applied as an assessment tool with variable implementation potential. Silviculture practices can be compared against the frequency, scale, and level of biological legacies characteristic of natural disturbance regimes to evaluate their potential impact on ecosystem sustainability.

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Intermediate‐severity wind disturbance in mature temperate forests: legacy structure, carbon storage, and stand dynamics

Meigs

Keeton

2018

Ecological Applications

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Wind is one of the most important natural disturbances influencing forest structure, ecosystem function, and successional processes worldwide. This study quantifies the stand-scale effects of intermediate-severity windstorms (i.e., blowdowns) on (1) live and dead legacy structure, (2) aboveground carbon storage, and (3) tree regeneration and associated stand dynamics at four mature, mixed hardwood-conifer forest sites in the northeastern United States. We compare wind-affected forests to adjacent reference conditions (i.e., undisturbed portions of the same stands) 0-8 yr post-blowdown using parametric (ANOVA) and nonparametric (NMS ordination) analyses. We supplement inventory plots and downed coarse woody detritus (DCWD) transects with hemispherical photography to capture spatial variation in the light environment. Although recent blowdowns transferred a substantial proportion of live overstory trees to DCWD, residual live tree basal area was high (19-59% of reference areas). On average, the initial post-blowdown ratio of DCWD carbon to standing live tree carbon was 2.72 in blowdown stands and 0.18 in reference stands, indicating a large carbon transfer from live to dead pools. Despite these dramatic changes, structural complexity remained high in blowdown areas, as indicated by the size and species distributions of overstory trees, abundance of sound and rotten downed wood, spatial patterns of light availability, and variability of understory vegetation. Furthermore, tree species composition was similar between blowdown and reference areas at each site, with generally shade-tolerant species dominating across multiple canopy strata. Community response to intermediate-severity blowdown at these sites suggests a dynamic in which disturbance maintains late-successional species composition rather than providing a regeneration opportunity for shade-intolerant, pioneer species. Our findings suggest that intermediate-severity wind disturbances can contribute to stand-scale structural complexity as well as development toward late-successional species composition, at least when shade-tolerant regeneration is present pre-blowdown. Advance regeneration thus enhances structural and compositional resilience to this type of disturbance. This study provides a baseline for multi-cohort silvicultural systems designed to restore heterogeneity associated with natural disturbance dynamics.

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Scale and frequency of natural disturbances in the northeastern US: implications for early successional forest habitats and regional age distributions

Cited by 221 publications

References 94 publications

TRFLP Analysis of the Effect of a Forest-to-Gap Ectone on Soil Microbial Diversity

TRFLP Analysis of the Effect of a Forest-to-Gap Ectone on Soil Microbial Diversity

Emulating Natural Disturbance Regimes: an Emerging Approach for Sustainable Forest Management

Intermediate‐severity wind disturbance in mature temperate forests: legacy structure, carbon storage, and stand dynamics

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