Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intermediate-severity wind disturbance and cultural fire in the maintenance of mixedwood forests

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Forest ecosystems worldwide are projected to face increasing stress over the next century as climate change modifies the ecological conditions driving forest growth. Biodiverse forests that contain a wide range of plant species are hypothesized to be more resistant and resilient to disturbance events and forest stresses than systems with less biological diversity. But it is not clear how future stresses to forest systems will affect biodiversity in different types of forests. This project quantifies the impacts of intermediate-severity wind disturbance on forest succession and development of shortleaf pine neighborhoods in a mixed oak-pine forest. This project also documents the effects of prescribed fire in shortleaf pine dominated mixed oak-pine forests previously unaffected by prescribed burns. Forest managers are increasingly embracing biodiversity enhancement as a management goal to improve ecosystem adaptation potential and this project provides new data and analysis to forest managers working with mixedwood species assemblages. The understanding of disturbance and development patterns in mixedwood forests is essential to create forest management systems that enhance native forest diversity, maintain critical ecosystem functions, and promote resiliency while also being economically sustainable and socially responsible. In these forest management systems, tree harvesting and other operations are patterned after natural processes both of which modify the distribution of tree species over time. This project explores the hypothesis that intermediate-severity canopy disturbance and fire are critical processes essential to perpetuate desirable species assemblages. This project uses field measurements in different forest experimental plots to quantify (1) the impacts of intermediate-severity canopy disturbance on forest succession and development and (2) the effects of prescribed fire on forest ecosystem conditions. This research provides data and reports to forest managers and stakeholders vested in the ecological integrity of forest systems and managing forests in the context of future climate change.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.