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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2007

  • Title: Past land uses affect the spatial heterogeneity of herbaceous understories in temperate forests.
  • Primary Author: Scott Pearson (Mars Hill College)
  • Additional Authors: Alan Smith (Mars Hill College); Monica Turner (University of Wisconsin -- Madison)
  • Abstract:

    Species abundance, diversity and spatial pattern were studied in herbaceous understories of submesic forest in southern Appalachia. Transects 200-400 m long were used sample herbs in forest stands having three levels of past land use intensity: grazing + logging, logging only, and relatively undisturbed reference stands. Regression analyses were used to develop models of the relationship between herbaceous abundance and edaphic habitat characteristics such as soil chemistry and topography, at 10-m resolution. After correcting for the influence of habitat, spatial autocorrelation was measured. Abundances of liliaceous, mesophytic, and xerophytic species, as well as total herb cover, were reduced in disturbed forests while generalist species showed little effect. Spatial autocorrelation differed among the land-use history groups for liliaceous and mesophytic species. In logged-only forests, the combination of reduced abundances and spatial autocorrelation over intermediate distances suggest that these populations are in a state of recovery after disturbance even in stands more than 50 years old.

  • Research Category: Biodiversity Studies
    Historical and Retrospective Studies

  • Figures:
  • C:Documents and Settingsspearson.MHCDOMDesktopPearson_LUtransects.pdf