Treesearch

The history of forests and logging in North America provides a back drop for our study of Watershed (WS) 7. Prior to European settlement, potentially commercial forests covered approximately 45% of North America, but not all of it was the pristine, ancient forest that some have imagined. Prior to 1492, Native Americans had extensive settlements throughout eastern North America, but to European settlers, the area was a wilderness. It was described by early settlers as “repugnant, forbidding, and repulsive….The forest were wild areas, alien to man and in need of felling, firing, grazing, and...

Our objectives in this study were (i) compare fluxes of the dissolved organic nutrients dissolved organic carbon (DOC), DON, and dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) in a clearcut area and an adjacent mature reference area. (ii) determine whether concentrations of dissolved organic nutrients or inorganic nutrients were greater in clearcut areas than in reference areas, and (iii) identify the strata were the greatest net leaching and deposition occur.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a heterogeneous mixture of compounds that makes up a large fraction of the organic matter transported in streams. It plays a significant role in many ecosystems. Riverine DOC links organic carbon cycles of continental and oceanic ecosystems. It is a significant trophic resource in stream food webs. DOC imparts color to lakes, regulating the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching lake biota and influencing lake thermal regimes. Cycling and biotic impact of metals are influenced by DOC concentration; for example, the concentration of methyl mercury in...

Most of the forest on Watershed (WS) 7 was cut and ledt on site to decompose. This Chapter describes the rate and manner of wood decomposition and also quantifies the fluxes from decaying wood to the forest floor on WS 7. In doing so, we make the case that wood and its process of decomposition contributes to ecosystem stability. We also review some of the history of wooddecomposition and place our results in the context of detrital organic matter pools on the watershed.

The recovery of ecosystems after disturbance remains a productive theme for ecological research. Numerous studies have focused either on the reestablishment of biological communities or on the recovery of ecosystem processes after perturbations. In the case of decomposer organisms an the processes of organic matter decay and the mineralization of nutrients, the recovery of the biota and ecosystem process can be usefully considered together. To what degree must the organismal community recover before associated processes are restored to predisturbance levels? The question is an important...

This paper describes methods developed to (1) assess current risks, vulnerabilities, and gaps in knowledge; (2) engage internal agency resources and external partners in the development of options and solutions; and (3) manage forest resources for resilience, not just in terms of natural ecosystems but in affected human communities as well. We describe an approach designed to characterize certain climate change effects on forests, and estimate the effectiveness of response options ranging from resistance to a realignment of management objectives. Field testing on a 6,300 km2 area of...

The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a Safety Journey in 2011 aimed at elevating safety consciousness and practice in the Agency. All employees were required to attend an engagement session during the year to introduce them to the Safety Journey. In September, a survey was launched to help Forest Service leadership better understand employee views concerning the Safety Journey, and generally of safety in the Agency. The survey included 49 statements relating to the content of the engagement sessions. Demographic questions were also included, as well as an opportunity...

We reared juvenile Oncorhychus mykiss with low and high standard metabolic rates (SMR) under alternative thermal regimes to determine how these proximate factors influence life histories in a partially migratory salmonid fish. High SMR significantly decreased rates of freshwater maturation and increased rates of smoltification in females, but not males, after 1 year of rearing. Warmer water temperatures significantly decreased rates of freshwater maturation and increased rates of smoltification in both sexes. Variation in individual growth influenced the probability of adopting anadromy or...

Our North American forests are no longer the wild areas of past centuries; they are an economic and ecological resource undergoing changes from both natural and management disturbances. A watershed-scale and long-term perspective of forest ecosystem responses is requisite to understanding and predicting cause and effect relationships. This book synthesizes interdisciplinary studies conducted over thirty years, to evaluate responses of a clear-cut, cable-logged watershed at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in the Nantahala Mountain Range of western North Carolina. This research was the...

This volume is a synthesis of a long-term interdisciplinary study of watershed ecosystem responses to a forest-management disturbance. Specifically, a commercial clearcut cable logging experiment was initiated on Watershed 7 (WS 7) at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in 1975 to elucidate ecosystem structure and function by testing hypotheses associated with the hydrologic, biogeochemical, and ecological processes of mixed deciduous forests. Practical forest-management objectives were also integral to the research.