Collaborative Research: Demography and Population Dynamics of a Fire-adapted Tree Species, Pinus Rigida

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Fox 9815469 Pitch pines, Pinus rigida, dominate or are important components of pine barrens and other forests covering over a million acres along the Atlantic coastal plain from Maine and Massachusetts to Maryland and the Appalachians. Approximately 100,000 acres of pitch pine dominated pine barrens exist and have protected status on Long Island, New York. Pitch pines, like many other pine species, have many adaptations to fire and require frequent fire both to regenerate and to retain their dominance in these plant communities. A greater understanding of the forces shaping the growth and decline of pitch pine populations promises to offer more general insight into factors affecting the behavior of other disturbance- prone plant populations and communities. While ecologists have understood for some time that natural populations and communities commonly never approach steady-state conditions, this study will help to develop practical tools needed to bridge the gulf between this conceptual understanding and the way we actually study and analyze natural populations. Data on the survival, growth and fecundity of pitch pine seedlings and mature plants will be collected from sites in the Long Island pine barrens with known fire histories. The data will be analyzed using an extension of mathematical demographic matrix models that we will develop, expanding upon the approaches used in previous studies of plant populations.