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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2010
- Title: The Influence of Legacy Trees on Forest Regeneration after a Severe Wind Disturbance
- Author: Meredith E Kueny (Cornell University)
- Abstract:
Abstract: Approximately every 50-100 years a major hurricane makes it far enough up the east coast to create large paths of wind disturbed forests and landscapes in New England. Hurricane disturbance consistently shapes affected areas, leaving most, but not all, of the canopy level trees blown over. This retrospective study, on 20 years of data collected from the Simulated Hurricane Experiment (1990), looks specifically at how legacy trees influence forest regeneration via their effects on sapling growth and distribution. The study site is 1.4 hectares (0.8ha experimental plot and a 0.6ha control plot) and dominant tree species are red oak and red maple. On the experimental plot 80% of trees were damaged to recreate the effects of a severe hurricane. To understand the influence of legacy trees, we examined how sapling basal area and density varied with proximity to red oaks, which are the main legacy trees in the site and still contribute more than 40% of the total stand basal area. We focused at the neighborhood level for this study. Sapling basal area and density were calculated on a 100m2 focal cell, and compared to oak influence (basal area) which was calculated in the surrounding 900m2 “neighborhood;” this was done with data from 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009. Our analysis revealed that the residual, large oak trees were not exerting a strong influence on sapling growth and distribution. Although oaks are considered foundation species in their environment, playing a large role in perpetuating certain forest structures, oaks do not appear to structure forest regeneration at the neighborhood spatial scale examined. Understanding how legacy trees shape forest regeneration, and at what spatial scales, will be very important for predicting the future of New England forests as climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events.
- Research Category: Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies
