Title: Seventy-year record of changes in the composition of overstory species by elevation on the Bartlett Experimental Forest

Author: Leak, William B.; Yamasaki, Mariko.

Year: 2010

Publication: Res. Pap. NRS-13. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 12 p.

Abstract: Remeasurements over a 70-year period (1931-1932 to 2002-2003) on 404 cruise plots on the Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire provided a record of landscape-level changes in the composition of overstory species over time by elevation and d.b.h. (diameter at breast height) classes. Typically, early to midsuccessional species declined while late successional species, especially hemlock, increased. The exception was at upper elevations (2,000 feet and higher), where natural wind disturbance maintained a variable component of paper and yellow birch. There is no evidence of species decline or migration that is inconsistent with natural succession or natural disturbance.