Reorganization: Loss of Biotic Regulation

Abstract

The Reorganization Phase in the northern hardwood developmental sequence is characterized by drastic changes in hydrologic, energetic, ecological, and biogeochemical processes that in the Aggradation Phase were fairly constant and predictable. Rates of net primary production, transpiration, and nutrient uptake registered by plant growth during the first growing season after cutting are far below levels in the uncut forest. There are also rapid and marked increases in internal ecosystem parameters like decomposition, nitrification, available soil moisture, and soil temperature and export parameters like summertime streamflow, nutrient concentration in stream water, and erosion. Cutting also imposes immediate and significant shifts in stores of nutrients and organic matter in the living (loss) and dead (gain) biomass compartments of the ecosystem.