Documenting the Regional and local distribution of Kalmia latifolia and Rosa multiflora in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Forests along a soil fertility gradient
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In: Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L., eds. 2012. Forest health monitoring: 2009 national technical report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-167. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 211-217.
Use of environmental variables as predictors of vegetation distribution patterns has long been a focus of ecology. However, the effect of edaphic factors on vegetation pattern is often measured using surrogates such as topography, because accurate measures of soil fertility and nutrients are unavailable or rare (Marage and Gégout 2009). Kalmia latifolia and Rosa multiflora exhibit contrasting regional vegetation patterns in which K. latifolia is more abundant in north central Pennsylvania and eastern West Virginia than in western West Virginia and eastern Ohio. In contrast, R. multiflora is more abundant in eastern Ohio and eastern West Virginia than it is in western West Virginia and north central Pennsylvania (FIA 2007). The distribution of these two species could be explained by changes in elevation over this region, and increasing elevations have been correlated with decreasing temperatures, decreasing soil moisture, decreasing soil pH, increasing organic matter, and increasing soil C (Niklinska and Klimek 2007). Studying the two species at the regional scale as well as local scale (under which the topographic conditions are more similar) will enable us to evaluate the relative importance of non-topographic variables, such as soil fertility (soil pH and nutrients).
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Fajvan, M.A., R.S. Morin and T. Lister. 2015. Assessment of the ecohydrological role of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and its pending decline in Chesapeake Bay watershed. IN: Proceedings of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Baltimore MD, November 1-4, 2015. Paper No.288-16. (Abstract) https://gsa.confex.com/gse/2015AM/webprogram/Paper266088.html In: Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L., eds. 2012. Forest health monitoring: 2009 national technical report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-167. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 211-217.