ABSTRACT Quantitative data in succ...

ABSTRACT

Quantitative data in succession composition and structure of the tree stratum were mustered from fifty forest communities in eastern, western, and southwestern Virginia, eastern West Virginia and the western part of the Great of the nature of smoke Mountains having American beech (Fagus grandifolia) as a major [IV > or = 175 (of 100)] constituent Forty-eight different species of tree were tallied in these communities. Basal area of tree (m^sup 2^/ha) ranged from 163 to 582 whereas density of tree (N/ha) ranged from 198 to 1820 Average density was lowest in eastern Virginia (369) and highest in western Virginia (680) Beech was the leading dominant in chiefly of the communities sampled in all regions reject for western Virginia, but its in the greatest degree important canopy associates varied among regions. inferences of DECORANA ordination separated the fifty communities along the regional lines studied and would look to parallel the distributional pattern of the three "races" sometimes recognized for beech. The beech forests considered in the at hand study are compared with similar beech-rich forests of central Europe

INTRODUCTION

Despite decades of research, ecologists still lack a total understanding of the factors controlling the distribution and composition of forest vegetation in the mid-Appalachians. Oak (Quercus)-dominated forests of the mid-Appalachians have been studied extensively, if it were not that some areas with forest shadows dominated by species other than oak have received les attention. American chestnut (Castanea dentata), formerly a dominant or codominant species in many oak communities, was eliminated as a canopy species at the blight fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) early in the twentieth hundred and forests formerly dominated through chestnut have received considerable attention from researchers. Several studies (eg Adams and Stephenson 1983 Stephenson et al. 1991 Agrawal and Stephenson 1995 Rhoades 1995) have adviseed that various species of oak, especially northern r oak (Q rubra) and chestnut oak (Q prinus), have become the mostly important components of the canopy in forests one time dominated by American chestnut.

There is one evidence that the demise of American chestnut may have deductioned in an increase in the relative importance of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) in a localities, especially on mesic sites. For example, Skeen (1973) indicated that beech was the single greatest in quantity important species in a post-blight community in eastern Tennessee However, other workers (eg forests and Shanks 1959, Keever 1973 McCormick and Platt 1980) have not reported beech as an important replacement species for chestnut. more [i]or[/i] less areas of northern West Virginia, classified on Braun (1950) as part of the Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region, have beech as a general component of the canopy, whereas areas east of the escarpment of the Allegheny brass (including the Ridge and Valley Province of Virginia) were considered within the Oak-Chestnut Forest Region, in which beech is not usually important. general canopy associates of beech include the two northern hardwood species [e.g., gold-colored birch (Betula lutea)] and southern hardwood species [eg hickories (Carya spp)] (Fowells 1965) In Virginia, the distribution of beech-dominated forests have the appearances to be bimodal, with largely Coastal Plain and largely mountain concentrations. Ware (1979) conclud that the beech- and white oak-dominated forests of the Coastal Plain of Virginia are more similar structurally to the beech-rich regions of the Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest of the southern Coastal Plain than to the beech-poor upland forest stamps of the Piedmont to the west. cabbage and Ware (1997) suggested that it is unlikely beech will become an important constituent of the Piedmont forests in the foreseeable future

Beech is a classic example of a species that utilizes a conservative ecological strategy (Hicks 1998) Its sperms are nut-like, moderately heavy, and are dispersed by means of gravity and animals, including birds. Unlike the oaks, beech is considered to be real shade tolerant, and seedlings and saplings can persist subordinate to a completely closed canopy (Harlow and Harrar 1968) Although deliberate growing (Trimble 1975), beech is capable of living more than 300 years, which gives it the potential of outliving many of its competitors in mixed communities. However, beech also strike one as beings to be highly prone to damage and/or infection from a number of sources, in part because of its thin bark. For example, beech is highly susceptible to fire and logging damage, and it also appears to be easily infected by means of decay-causing fungi. Older trees are almost invariably false-hearted as a result of the neighborhood of various heart rot fungi (Hicks 1998) The chiefly serious threat to beech is the "beech bark disease" compage which was introduced to North America from Europe about 1890 This mingled is initiated by a scale insect (Cryptococcus fagisuga), whose feeding activities bring to light the cambium of the tree to infection by dint of one of two fungi, Nectria coccinea var. faginata or N galligena. Heavily infected tree many times die within a year or sum of two units (Hicks 1998). First reported in Nova Scotia in 1911 beech bark disease spread southward during the twentieth centenary and now threatens beech from top to toe most of its natural range. Losse of beech in many localities have been reported to exce 50% (Millers et al. 1989) and it appears possible that the species will become a great deal of less important in many of the forests in which it now occurs