Long-Term Response of a Forest Watershed Ecosystem: Clearcutting in the Southern Appalachians(The Long-Term Ecological Research Network Series)

Our North American forests are no longer the wild areas of past centuries; they are an economic and ecological resource undergoing changes from both natural and management disturbances. A watershed-scale and long-term perspective of forest ecosystem responses is requisite to understanding and predicting cause and effect relationships. This book synthesizes interdisciplinary studies conducted over thirty years, to evaluate responses of a clear-cut, cable-logged watershed at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in the Nantahala Mountain Range of western North Carolina. This research was the result of collaboration among Forest Service and university researchers on the most studied watershed in the Lab's 78-year history. During the experiment, a variety of natural disturbances occurred: two record floods, two record droughts, a major hurricane, a blizzard of the century, major forest diseases, and insect infestations. These disturbances provided a unique opportunity to study how they altered the recovery of the forest ecosystem. This book also shows that some long-term forest trends cannot be forecast from short-term findings, which could lead to incorrect conclusions of cause and effect relationships and natural resource management decisions.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Chapter 1- Introduction: programmatic background, site description, experimental approach and treatment, natural disturbances. Wayne T. Swank and Jackson R. Webster. Chapter 2- Successional forest dynamics: 20 years following clearcutting. Lindsay R. Boring, Katherine J. Elliott, and Wayne T. Swank Chapter 3- Response and recovery of water yield and timing, stream sediment, abiotic parameters, and stream chemistry. Wayne T. Swank, Jennifer D. Knoepp, James M. Vose, Stephanie Laseter, and Jackson R. Webster. Chapter 4- Long-and short-term changes in soil nutrient availability following logging. Jennifer D. Knoepp, Bruce L. Haines, Wayne T. Swank. Chapter 5- Soluble organic nutrient fluxes. Robert G. Qualls, Bruce L. Haines, Wayne T. Swank. Chapter 6- Dynamics of dissolved organic carbon in a stream during a quarter century of forest succession. Judy L. Meyer, Jackson R. Webster, Jennifer D. Knoepp, and E. F. Benfield. Chapter 7- Woody debris decomposition and its contribution to the forest floor and soil on watershed 7. Kim G. Mattson and Wayne T. Swank Chapter 8- Recovery of decomposition and soil microarthropod communities. Liam Heneghan and Alissa Salmore Chapter 9- Canopy Arthropods Barbara C. Reynolds, Timothy D. Schowalter, and D. A. Crossley, Jr.. Chapter 10- Recovery of particulate organic matter dynamics in a stream draining a logged watershed---- a pressing situation. Jackson R. Webster, E. F. Benfield, Stephen W. Golladay, and Matthew E. McTammany. Chapter 11- Stream macroinvertebrate response to clearcut logging. J. Bruce Wallace and Damon Ely. Chapter 12- Comparisons with results from the Fernow Experimental forest in the central Appalachians. Mary Beth Adams and James N. Kochendenfer. Chapter 13- Comparisons with results from the Hubbard Brook Experimental forest in the northern Appalachians. James W. Hornbeck, Amey S. Bailey, Christopher Eagar, and John L. Campbell. Chapter 14- Ecosystem stability and forest watershed management: A synthesis from 30+ years of research on WS7. Jackson R. Webster, Wayne T. Swank, James M. Vose, Jennifer D. Knoepp, and Katherine J. Elliott.

About the Author :
Wayne T. Swank is Scientist Emeritus, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, USDA Forest Service. Jackson R. Webster is Professor of Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Review :
"No serious student of forest hydrology or ecology can survive long without encountering the name "Coweeta." The Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina has rightly become world-famous across a broad spectrum of environmental science. It is well over 20 years since the last compilation of Coweeta research appeared in book form, and this volume provides a very welcome update." --Professor Tim Burt, Durham University "Forest watershed research is reaching an age when some long-term trends - or the lack of them - can be evaluated. Aside from its great value as a synthesis of a comprehensive long-term research project in and of itself, this volume is a welcome scientifically objective investigation of the long-term effects of forest harvesting. This volume should reside on the bookshelves of scientists (both basic and applied), educators, policy makers, and environmental advocates." --Dale Johnson, Emeritus Professor, University of Nevada "This volume is a most compelling case on the value and necessity of long-term research on ecological patterns and processes. Findings summarized here are applicable way beyond the ecology and management of southern Appalachian hardwoods, by providing a framework on improving both economic and ecological values with appropriate forest management practices." --Donald J. Leopold, Chair, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY-ESF