Forests throughout the world are experiencing
worrisome increases in tree morbidity and mortality. Some cases
involve the introduction of exotic pests or exploitative land-use
practices. For others, the interaction of specifially ordered
physical and biological factors produces a progressive loss of
vigor that frequently ends in death, a phenomenon called forest
decline. Atmospheric pollution often is implicated as a contributor
to forest decline. The perceived threat to regional forest health
concentrated research efforts on a search for causes. The consequences
of decline on forest structure and function have received much
less attention.
The decline of red spruce (Picea rubens) in the
Northeastern United States presents an unique opportunity to study
forest dynamics in the midst of an archetypical decline-disturbance.
The extent, severity, and timing of spruce decline are such that
the phenomenon can be tractably investigated from an ecological
perspective. Given the weak factual foundation on which to build
a conceptual understanding of the ecology of decline, a detailed
case study quantifying pattern and process is necessary scientific
groundwork.
This proposal requests support to complete a
37-year record of vegetation change on Whiteface Mountain, New
York -- a record unparalled in scope and scale for the Northeastern
subalpine forest biome. Remeasurement of the vegetation plots
will produce the results required to test hypotheses regarding
population, community, and ecosystem responses to the waning and
waxing of a forest dominant. This research would provide robust
estimates of establishment, growth, mortality, and recruitment
rates for spruce and associated tree species. Direct measures
of such vital statistics do not exist for the Northeastern spruce-fir
forest. In addition, shifts in species dominance in the wake of
decline would be documented and theories about biomass accumulation
and resource limitation would be investigated.
The health of the red spruce forests has been
at the center of environmental, political, and scientific controversies
for two decades. Some of the arguments were about scientific findings
that had to rely on inferential approaches to reconstruct the
pre-decline status of the forest. Neither the knowledge-base nor
database existed to properly evaluate the magnitude of the decline
and place it within an appropriate ecological context. The proposed
research addresses these deficiences and would perpetuate and
preserve the best data available on forest population and community
dynamics in this sentinel ecosystem.