Proceedings from the conference on the ecology and management of high-elevation forests in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains

Abstract

The proceedings includes 18 peer-reviewed papers and 41 abstracts pertaining to acid deposition and nutrient cycling, ecological classification, forest dynamics, avifauna, wildlife and fisheries, forests pests, climate change, old-growth forest structure, regeneration, and restoration.

Titles contained within Proceedings from the conference on the ecology and management of high-elevation forests in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains

• The isolated red spruce communities of Virginia and West Virginia
• Changes in canopy cover alter surface air and forest floor temperature in a high-elevation red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) forest
• Stand dynamics of relict red spruce in the Alarka Creek headwaters, North Carolina
• Historical reconstructions of high-elevation spruce forests in the Appalachian mountains
• Maintenance of eastern hemlock forests: Factors associated with hemlock vulnerability to hemlock woolly adelgid
• Area occupancy and detection probabilities of the Virginia northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus) using nest-box surveys
• Pennsylvania boreal conifer forests and their bird communities: past, present, and potential
• Brook trout movement within a high-elevation watershed: Consequences for watershed restoration
• Does nitrogen and sulfur deposition affect forest productivity?
• Factors influencing avian communities in high-elevation southern Allegheny mountain forests
• Forest change in high-elevation forests of Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina: re-census and analysis of data collected over 40 years
• Abundance of red spruce regeneration across spruce-hardwood ecotones at Gaudineer Knob, West Virginia
• Species composition and stand structure of a large red spruce planting 67 years after its establishment in western North Carolina
• A comparison of the status of spruce in high-elevation forests on public and private land in the southern and central Appalachian Mountains
• The current status of red spruce in the eastern United States: distribution, population trends, and environmental drivers
• The current distribution, predictive modeling, and restoration potential of red spruce in West Virginia
• Predicting climate change extirpation risk for central and southern Appalachian forest tree species
• Disruption of calcium nutrition at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (New Hampshire) alters the health and productivity of red spruce and sugar maple trees and provides lessons pertinent to other sites and regions
• Acidic deposition and red spruce in the central and southern Appalachians, past and present
• Evidence of montane spruce-fir forest recovery on the high peaks and ridges of the black mountains, North Carolina: recent trends, 1986-2003
• Status and conservation of northern goshawks in the central Appalachian mountains: has the population trend reversed since 2001?
• American chestnut persistence in southwestern Virginia 80 years after chestnut blight introduction
• Natural communities of the central Appalachian red spruce ecosystem and their conservation significance
• Wet feet and sappy fingers: lessons learned from restoration work in the West Virginia highlands
• Foliar and soil chemistry at red spruce sites in the Monongahela National Forest
• Detecting and monitoring acidic deposition effects on soil chemistry and forest growth on the Monongahela National Forest
• Eastern hemlock decline in riparian areas from Maine to Alabama
• 25+ year changes in forest structure and tree-ring patterns in three old-growth red spruce stands in West Virginia
• Bird conservation issues in high-elevation (red spruce-fraser fir-northern hardwood) forests of the southern Blue Ridge
• Vegetation controls on carbon and nitrogen cycling and retention: contrasts in spruce and hardwood watershed budgets
• Mountain birdwatch: developing a coordinated monitoring program for high-elevation birds in the Atlantic northern forest
• Fraser fir stand structure in the Black Mountains of North Carolina
• Critical acid load limits in a changing climate: implications and solutions
• Potential impacts of climate change on bird and tree habitats within the Appalachian Mountains
• Overview of the status of the Cheat Mountain salamander
• Composition of high-elevation breeding bird assemblages and environmental correlates in the southern Blue Ridge Province
• Evolutionary history and population genetics of fraser fir and intermediate fir, southern Appalachian endemic conifers imperiled by an exotic pest and climate change
• Impacts of cloud immersion on microclimate, photosynthesis and water relations of fraser fir in a temperate mountain cloud forest
• Early red spruce regeneration and release studies in the central and southern Appalachians
• The National Audubon Society's eastern forest conservation initiative: examining opportunities for bird conservation at a regional scale
• A framework for addressing bird conservation priorities in high-elevation vegetation communities of the Appalachian Mountains
• Ecophysiology of seedling establishment in contrasting spruce-fir forests of southern Appalachian and Rocky Mountain ecotones, USA
• Altitudinal gradients of bryophyte diversity and community assemblage in southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests
• Seeing the bigger picture: multi-partner spruce restoration in the central and southern Appalachian mountains
• Update on terrestrial ecological classification in the highlands of West Virginia
• Red spruce restoration modeling in LANDIS
• Characterization of the ecological requirements for three plethodontid salamander species
• Using environmental and site-specific variables to model current and potential distribution of red spruce forest habitat in West Virginia
• Balsam fir conservation and red spruce ecosystem restoration initiatives in the West Virginia highlands
• Management of grassy bald communities in the Roan Highlands
• Mapping the current and potential distribution of red spruce in Virginia: implications for the restoration of degraded high elevation habitat
• Hermit thrush breeding range expansion and habitat preferences in the southern Appalachian high-elevation forests
• Species distribution and richness patterns of avian communities in the high-elevation forests of Virginia
• Growth of American chestnut and incidence of chestnut blight in the forest understory
• Modeling the breeding habitat distribution of the Appalachian yellow-bellied sapsucker in North Carolina
• Dynamics of mid-Appalachian red spruce-hardwood ecotones
• Influence of acid deposition on regeneration dynamics along a disturbance intensity gradient
• Red spruce as witness tree on the Monongahela National Forest

Citation

Rentch, James S.; Schuler, Thomas M., eds. 2010. Proceedings from the conference on the ecology and management of high-elevation forests in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. 2009 May 14-15; Slatyfork, WV. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-64. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 242 p.