ENTS, It is a complex problem in many ways. You often can not directly compare growth rates in old growth forests to those in younger forests, because the trees may be of different ages overall. Individual stand may be compared because there are younger stands within or adjacent to the old growth with big trees, but that still doesn't tell the whole story. If you look at the forest floor there often is a marked difference between the floor of an old forest or one that has not seen much human disturbance and those forest that have been cut repeatedly. In old forests they may be a very thick duff layer. That material is populated by mosses, herbaceous plants, and various fungi. Looking at nurse logs they have found that the presence of certain bacteria actually promote the growth of trees, maybe by affecting the chemistry of the nutrients so they in a form more easily taken up by the trees. The soils in areas cut over and over again often is thinner and has a different flora component. These differences could be affecting the growth rates of the trees in these different settings. If this is the case then growth rates today in these different settings might be different than they were a couple centuries ago, climate change, acid rain, invasive earthworms, deer populations, and all the other factors not withstanding...
Ed "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science." - Albert Einstein ----- Original Message ----- From: Joseph Zorzin To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 7:06 PM Subject: [ENTS] Re: Superior Sites (or not) I think Mohawk has very deep soils (washing down from higher slopes) and with high hills all around in narrow valleys protecting the forest from winter storms along with high fertility due to geology- it has very high site index for this part of the country- just a commentary as I don't know. And of course, for whatever reason, it wasn't whacked like most of the region's forests. Joe --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
