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Summer Research Project 2018

  • Title: Group Project: Shifting dominance of red maple and red oak
  • Group Project Leader: Audrey Barker Plotkin
  • Mentors: Audrey Barker Plotkin; Jonathan Thompson
  • Collaborators: Audrey Barker Plotkin; David Foster; David Orwig; Neil Pederson; Jonathan Thompson
  • Project Description:

    In many forests of eastern North America, long-term importance of dominant oaks (Quercus) and subordinate red maple (Acer rubrum) appears to be shifting (Abrams 1998, McEwan et al. 2010 ). Species composition shifts have implications for forest carbon storage capacity, timber value, and wildlife habitat of these forests . Lorimer (1984) evaluated the development of the red maple understory in oak-dominated forests, and predicted that red maple should, over time, dominate the canopy as gaps form in these stands. Currently, red maple biomass exceeds that of red oak regionally. In contrast, other researchers have observed high mortality within the red maple understory and increasing importance of red oak in similar forest types during the last 25 years (Urbanski et al. 2007; Eisen and Barker Plotkin 2015). We hypothesize that continued mixed-species stand development (Oliver 1978) without major disturbance leads to red maple decline and increasing red oak dominance, but that regional timber harvesting patterns may reverse this pattern.

    We will evaluate these trends and hypotheses using multiple lines of data:
    1) We will add 30+ years of continued stand development data for the four permanent plots that Lorimer used in his 1984 paper, including field re-sampling of three of these plots (at Harvard Forest and Black Rock Forest). We will then re-evaluate the five hypotheses that Lorimer proposed for the development of the red maple understory, using these data.

    2) We will analyze long-term shifts in species and size structure from a suite of 60 plots at Harvard Forest that were established in 1937, and re-measured in 1992 and 2013.

    3) We will analyze recent trends in oak and maple biomass and size structure from US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data

    4) We will explore trends in species-level timber harvest across Massachusetts, using 30 years of timber harvest plan data

    Audrey Barker Plotkin is the primary mentor for the overall project, with collaboration from Jonathan Thompson and his lab on utilizing the FIA and timber harvest data sets. Students will present their research findings in the end-of-summer research symposium. There will be opportunities for interested students to develop independent projects that can be extended into year-long independent projects or senior thesis work.

    This project combines computer work with several large data sets (~75% of the time) with field work (~25% of the time) at Harvard Forest and Black Rock Forest (in eastern New York).

    Desired qualifications:
    - Some experience with using R, and the desire to learn more
    - Valid driver's license (at least one of the two students)
    - Willingness to participate in active field activites in forest plots

  • Readings:

    Abrams, M.D. 1998. The red maple paradox. Bioscience 48:355-363.

    Eisen, K., Barker Plotkin, A. 2015. Forty years of forest measurements support steadily increasing aboveground biomass in a maturing, Quercus-dominant northeastern forest. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 142: 97-112.

    Lorimer, C.B. 1984. Development of the red maple understory in Northeastern oak forests. Forest Science 30:3-22.

    McEwan, R.W., J.M. Dyer and N. Pederson. 2010. Multiple interacting ecosystem drivers: toward an encompassing hypothesis of oak forest dynamics across eastern North America. Ecography: .

    Oliver, C. D. 1978. The development of northern red oak in mixed stands in central New England. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Bulletin No. 91. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/files/publications/pdfs/Oliver_YaleBulletin91_1978.pdf

    Urbanski, S. P., Barford, C. C., Wofsy, S. C., Kucharik, C. J., Pyle, E. H., Budney, J., McKain, K., Fitzjarrald, D. R., Czikowsky, M. J., Munger, J. W. 2007. Factors controlling CO2 exchange on time scales from hourly to decadal at Harvard Forest. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences 112.

  • Research Category: Physiological Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Species Interactions, Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies