Old Growth and Dendrochronology
We have designed studies using historical records, dendroecological data, vegetation, and coarse woody debris to characterize the dynamics and development of old-growth stands in central and western Massachusetts. Tree-ring data have been an invaluable source of information for reconstructing the intensity and frequency of forest disturbance and its impact on the structure and composition of these rare forests over the last several centuries.
Massachusetts Old Growth Research
The recent discovery of numerous old-growth forest stands in western Massachusetts has provided an unprecedented opportunity to characterize the structural attributes, dendroecological dynamics, and ecosystem properties of these rare ecosystems. University of Massachusetts-Amherst doctoral student, Tony D’Amato, and Harvard Forest Ecologist, Dr. David Orwig, are currently conducting research on eighteen old-growth sites throughout the Berkshire Hills and Taconic Mountains of western Massachusetts. This research compliments previous Harvard Forest old-growth studies on Mt. Wachusett (Orwig et al. 2002) and at Pisgah Forest in NH (Foster 1988; Schoonmaker 1991) and is providing critical information on the natural disturbance dynamics and nature and abundance of coarse woody debris of old-growth forests in southern New England. In addition, extensive field reconnaissance, field sampling, and historical research on these areas has resulted in a comprehensive, research-based estimate of the total acreage of old-growth forests in Massachusetts that can be downloaded.
Selected Publications
McLachlan, J., D. Foster, S. Clayden, and S. Barry. 2004. Long-term forest and landscape dynamics. Pp. 125-141 In D. Foster and J. Aber (Eds.), Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1000 years of Change in New England. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Ollinger, S. V., J. D. Aber, P. B. Reich, and R. Freuder. 2002. Interactive effects of nitrogen deposition, tropospheric ozone, elevated CO2 and land use history on the carbon dynamics of northern hardwood forests. Global Change Biology 8: 545-562
Foster, D. R. 2001. New England's Forest Primeval. Wild Earth 11: 40-44
Smith, N. V. *. 2001. Historic carbon sequestration in a hemlock-hardwood stand. Beloit Biologist 20: 54-59
McLachlan, J., D. R. Foster, and F. Menalled. 2000. Anthropogenic ties to late-successional structure and composition in four New England hemlock stands. Ecology 81: 717-733
Orwig, D. A. and M. D. Abrams. 1999. Impacts of early selective logging on the dendroecology of an old-growth, bottomland hemlock-white pine-northern hardwood forest on the Allegheny Plateau. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 126: 234-244
Orwig, D. A., D. R. Foster, and J. F. O'Keefe. 1999. Old-growth forests on Wachusett Mountain. Wachusett Mountain State Reservation Resource Management and Protection Plan. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, Boston, MA
Cooper-Ellis, S. 1998. Bryophytes in old-growth forests of western Massachusetts. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 125: 117-132
Abrams, M. D., D. A. Orwig, and J. Dockry. 1997. Dendroecology and successional status of two contrasting old-growth oak forests in the Blue Ridge Mountains, U.S.A. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 27: 994-1002
Foster, D. R., Orwig, D. A., and O'Keefe, J. F. Impact of development on the forests of Wachusett Mountain 1997 . Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management 15 pp
Foster, D. R., Orwig, D. A., and O'Keefe, J. F. Old-growth forest monitoring on Wachusett Mountain 1997 . Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management 12 pp.
Orwig, D. A. and M. D. Abrams. 1997. Variation of radial growth responses to drought among species, site, and canopy strata. Trees 11: 474-484
Dunwiddie, P., D. Foster, D. Leopold, and R. Leverett. 1996. Old-growth forests of southern New England, New York and Pennsylvania. Pp. 126-143 In M. B. Davis (Eds.), Eastern Old Growth Forests. Island Press, Covelo, CA
Foster, D. R., D. A. Orwig, and J. S. McLachlan. 1996. Ecological and conservation insights from reconstructive studies of temperate old-growth forests. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11: 419-424
Foster, D. R., Orwig, D. A., and O'Keefe, J. Evaluation of the old-growth forest at Mount Wachusett, central Massachusetts 1996 . Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management 9 pp
Stafford, R. 1992. Heterogeneity in forest structure, composition and dynamics following catastrophic wind disturbance in southwestern New Hampshire. MFS Thesis, Harvard
Schoonmaker, P. 1991. Long-term vegetation dynamics in southwestern New Hampshire. PhD Thesis, Harvard
Foster, D. R. 1988. Disturbance history, community organization and vegetation dynamics of the old-growth Pisgah Forest, southwestern New Hampshire, U.S.A. Journal of Ecology 76: 105-134