Intro to Forest Classification

Forest Types of the Southeastern United States

What makes forests recognizably different?

  • Different forests, larger and smaller trees, landscape structure, ages of trees

  • Why is it important to recognize different forest types?

    • Forestry students: estimating the value of the land

    • Wildlife students: understanding what wildlife prefers which forests

    • Natural resources/environmental science: what impacts the forest

What factors control the distribution of species?

  • Acer saccharum limited by lack of precipitation in West, more present in Northeast

Environmental factors predict forest type

  • Climate

    • Temperature

    • Precipitation

    • Growing season

  • Geology and soil

  • Disturbance (or lack of disturbance)

    • Natural

    • Human

  • Time and Space (geography)

  • How much rainfall is needed for forests?

    • 18” annual rain = closed canopy forests

    • 15-18” annual rain = open forests and woodlands (trees don’t touch/cover each other)

    • <15” annual rain = no trees

    • Forestry ecology is complex—there is never just one factors that explains 100% of the variation

Forest classification—summary

  • Env. factors such as temperature and precipitation, as well as time and spatial scale, determine forest type in a particular location

  • Depending on the application, you can use broad versus narrow classifications for forest types

  • Multiple factors play into species and forest distribution

Forest types in Dendrology

  • 36% of the U.S. is forested

  • NC is 67% forested

  • Maine has the most forested land (90%)

Forests in NC

  1. Physiognmoic provinces

    1. Physiognomy—general form or appearance (party geography)

  2. Precipitation patterns

  3. Forest types of the Southeastern Costal Plain

Physiognmoic regions of NC

  • Outer Coastal Plain: tidewater region; influenced by tides (ocean, moon, or wind)

  • Inner Coastal Plain: separated from outer coastal plain by a sand ridge; includes the Sandhills, the highest point in the coastal plain

  • Piedmont: separated by the fall line, a change in the fall of the land. Translated: pied/foot + mont/hill or mountain

  • Blue Ridge—separated from the Piedmont by the escarpment

  • Why would so many historic towns be located on the fall line? (Raleigh, Richmond, Falls Lake, etc)

    • Train routes, mills, rushing water

What are natural (forested communities?

  • The natural vegetation type occurring on a tract of ground as determined by the similarity of:

    • Species composition and relative abundances

    • Vegetation physiognomy (structure)

    • Environmental factors

      • climate (temperature and precipitation)

      • soils (soil chemistry, moisture, and texture)

      • slope position and orientation

    • Nature disturbance regimes (such as fire, wing, ice, scour)