PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 163: Forest Ecology: Vegetation Change and Succession
Friday, August 12, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 B, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Herbaceous community change in pine-dominated stands of the Piedmont over a 23 year interval.

Schwartz, Miguel^*,1, Christensen, Norm¹, Peet, Robert², ¹ Duke University, Durham, NC² University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

ABSTRACT- The Piedmont has been used as a model system for studying succession since groundbreaking work on old-field succession in the early part of this century. Although the pattern of succession in the overstory is well studied, successional changes in the understory are less well understood. I examine change in understory communities in pine dominated secondary forest stands using data from plots censused in 1977 and resampled in 2000 via non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination. Plots are showing significant and consistent changes in composition. Contrary to theoretical predictions, these changes do not seem to be related to studied environmental or edaphic factors. Consistent with theoretical predictions, however, successionally older plots are exhibiting less change than younger plots. Additional life history factors, (e.g., shade tolerance, height, dispersal mode) will be examined to see whether these may serve some explanatory role in understanding observed herbaceous species change.

Key words: succession, understory, forest change, Piedmont