50-year succession study report on plot # 7.

Abstract

This study is the continuation of a long term project begun in 1938 (Duncan and Varner 1938) that was designed to show the relationship (over a period of at least fifty years) between the soil and vegetational cover on permanent study plots representative of various local conditions on the UMBS property. The intent of the original study was to display successional patterns and relationships and then to correlate this information with soil type. From 1938 to the present the plots have been sampled regularly for vegetation but no soil information has been collected since the original analyses were performed. The data presented here, then, attempts only to address aspects of succession patterns of tree species and not to deal directly with how these patterns may correlate with soil type. Primary objectives in this study were to: a)generate current maps for each of the two sites showing position and diameter of all existing, standing trees; and b)use the data collected from mappings in 1938, 1945, 1951, 1955, and 1981 to examine the patterns of succession in each site with two basic questions in mind - 1. How has the species composition changed after 43 years of growth: and 2. How has the density and distribution of individuals changed?