Analysis of Forest Communities Understanding Succession and Disturbances

Vellie Johnson Lab TA: Nathan Tarr

Submitted November 5, 2008

Abstract: Succession, the gradual change in species richness in a given population over time, is common to forest communities. The gradual change from conifer to hardwood forests is commonly seen over time. The changes can be linked to the fact that conifers such as pine trees require lots of direct sunlight to be successful and hardwoods dont require as much. Disturbances also occur in high frequency in the environment. These disturbances can be in the form of a drought, flood, fire, or wind. As any other field of study these changes are found to create changes in normal activity in the ecosystem and gave rise to the search for causes. Over the years, research has proved that many of the disturbances that occur naturally in the environment give rise to the same types of predictable succession. Introduction: Forest communities have been plagued with changes that are both natural and man-made that cause changes in the landscape of the community. These are commonly called disturbances and can occur anywhere in a forest. As the forest begins to grow and replenish itself from the disturbance, there are changes that go on. These changes are usually predictable in the sense of time as well as stages of succession. As disasters and disturbances change an area, the first thing that happens is that the area goes through a primary succession series of events in the area that was recently affected by the series of events. During primary succession there are many herbaceous plants that start to dominate the area that was recently disturbed. This usually lasts for a few years. The second stage succession is called secondary

succession. Secondary succession is a process started by an event that reduces the number of species in an ecosystem to a smaller population of species (wikipedia.org). During secondary succession there begins to be a change from herbaceous plants to sapwood and hardwood plants. The first types of woody plants are usually conifers. They usually dominate in the beginning stages of secondary succession, competing for direct sunlight. While the conifers are still dominant, there begins to be an introduction of hardwood species into the area. These plants do much better at being able to grow in lower sunlight areas and therefore eventually become direct competition with the conifers before eventually taking over the area as the dominant plant type. Once the hardwoods begin to start growing and there is little change in the landscape over time, this is referred to as a climax community. The purpose of this report is to look at the differences of plant frequency and richness of different sections of forest, or plots, at different stages of secondary succession. The amount of diversity and species richness found in the pine plots will be compared to the amount of diversity and species richness, as well as size of trees found in the hardwood plots as these forests get closer to becoming a climax community. There are two different types of diversity, alpha and gamma. Alpha diversity is diversity measured on a small scale and gamma diversity is measured on a larger scale, usually the whole forest. This experiment was done on a small scale (alpha) in plots that measured 10meters2 , and then combined with data from the other five groups (gamma).

I hypothesize that the proportion of overstory trees (diameter greater than 10cm at 1.4m above the ground) to understory trees (diameter less than 10cm at 1.4m above the ground) will be the same in the hardwood plots vs. pine plots. My alternative hypothesis is that the proportion of overstory trees compared to understory trees will be different in the hardwood plots vs. pine plots. I base this hypothesis on the fact that in order for a pine forest to turn into a hardwood forest there needs to be shading out of the pine trees since they do not do well in shaded areas. I hypothesize that the species richness in the pine plots will be the same as hardwood plots as understory hardwoods begin to grow as a result of succession. My alternative hypothesis is that the species richness in the pine plots will be higher than hardwood plots as understory hardwoods begin to grow as a result of succession. I base my hypothesis on the fact that as the hardwoods get older they will eventually begin to outcompete each other for nutrients in the soil. Methods: On October 23, 2008, at 9:30am, at Yates Mill Park, our group was given two different plots (10x10m) to check the stages of secondary succession from pine to hardwood forest. There were six different groups sampling twelve different 10x10m plots. All groups were given the same specific instructions as to how to collect their data so that all data would be collected in the same way as to cut down on the amount of variation in collection methods between different plots. The first plot that was sampled was a pine plot, the amount of understory as well as overstory trees were counted and recorded as well as the species of the

trees. If there were more than one of a particular type of tree, only one was recorded unless the species of tree appeared in overstory and understory forms in the same plot. The same technique of collection and classification was used in the hardwood plots for data collection and recording (table[s] 2 & 3). The data that was collected was then tested using a t-test to get the t-value to assess whether the means of the two groups were actually different from each other (table 1). A p-test was also performed to check the probability that a particular type of tree would be found in a specified location with the given amount of degrees of freedom (table 1). Results and Discussion: The results obtained from the data that was collected was interesting. The tvalue for the mature pine plot was 4.35 while only being .8 in the mature hardwood plot while having 10 DOF. The p-value was found to be .0014 in the pine plots while measured at .44 in the hardwood plot. There were a total of 11 unique species of understory plants found in the pine plots. Our group found 6 different species of understory trees in our pine plot. This tells us that we had 55% of the total amount of different species in our plot, with the average mean over all the plots being 4.1 species per plot or 38% of the total species represented in a particular plot. There were a total of 14 different species of understory plants in our hardwood plots with an average mean per plot of 3.5 species per plot. Our group had plot 9 and we found that there were 8 different species in our plot, giving 57% of the total understory species found present in our plot.

Overstory trees had a total of 19 different species found with a mean of 8.67 species found in each plot. Our group found 8 different species of overstory trees in our pine plot which gave us a total of 42% of the total trees found in the sample. The total amount of overstory trees found in the hardwood plot was 14. The mean of the plots was 5.5 species per plot or 39%. Our group had 5 species of overstory trees identified in our plot or 35.7%. Using the data from the t-value we see there is a significant difference in the populations of hardwood and pine plots (table 1). This leads us to reject the null hypothesis that the two plots have the same amount of diversity. The p-value shows us that there is a high probability that in the hardwood plots you will find a species that you are looking for while in the pine plot the probability is drastically reduced. There seems to be a very small difference between the amount of large trees that you will find in the pine and hardwood plots. This suggests that there have not been any real climax communities there yet because as the forest reaches climax there will be less diversity in the forest. The smaller trees have a slightly larger amount of change in the amount of species found in the area. This could mean that there was a change from going from pine into succession into a hardwood forest. As I have previously states, pine trees do not appear in the understory of the forest because they need a certain percentage of direct sunlight and with the canopy blocked out by larger pines, there is no sunlight for the little pines to grow. This is one way that you can see succession and why it happens. Hardwoods can grow in shaded environments and thus grow unhindered in the shade of the pines. As the

pines begin to die from infection or old age, new pines will not be allowed to grow because of the hardwoods that are providing the canopy.

Table 1. Data that was collected from the Yates mill Pine and Hardwood plots.
Pine Plot t-value Degrees of Freedom p-value 4.35 10 0.002 Hardwood Plot 0.8 10 0.45