Abstract
Largely a legacy of stand-replacing human disturbances, today’s central hardwood forests exhibit a narrower range of stand ages and structures than those in the presettlement landscape. Although natural disturbance types and frequencies vary within the region, large stand-replacing natural disturbances have always been infrequent; typical return intervals in excess of 100 years are longer than current forests have existed. Many present-day stands are dominated by early to mid-successional species in the overstory and late successional species in the understory; natural disturbances often serve to increase dominance of the understory late successional species, unless they are severe enough to disturb the canopy, forest floor, and soil. In any case, only the most severe natural disturbances or combinations of disturbances (including human disturbance) initiate large patches of early successional vegetation. Will the amount and spatial arrangement of early successional habitats created by natural disturbances be sufficient to meet management goals? We do not have the information to answer this question at present; the answer is further complicated by the potential effects of climate change on the rates and intensities of natural disturbances.
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Appendix I: Base Maps of Natural Disturbances Within the Central Hardwood Region
Appendix I: Base Maps of Natural Disturbances Within the Central Hardwood Region
The map of Hurricane Density within the Central Hardwood Region was derived from line coverage of historical North Atlantic tropical cyclone tracks, 1851–2000 (NOAA 2009). The Landslide map was based on a spatial index of landslide susceptibility and occurrence (Godt 1997). Raster digital data for Mean Fire Return Interval were obtained from LANDFIRE (US Forest Service 2006). Tornado density was calculated in ArcGIS using United States tornado touchdown points 1950–2004 (NWS 2005). The map of ice storm potential (Freezing Rain) was derived by geo-referencing Fig. 3.1 (a map of the annual number of days with freezing rain as defined by 988 weather stations from 1948 to 2000) from Changnon and Bigley (2005)
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White, P.S., Collins, B., Wein, G.R. (2011). Natural Disturbances and Early Successional Habitats. In: Greenberg, C., Collins, B., Thompson III, F. (eds) Sustaining Young Forest Communities. Managing Forest Ecosystems, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1620-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1620-9_3
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