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Redefining forest stocking in the New Jersey Pinelands: forest evapotranspiration, understory light availability, and a quantitative framework to balance contemporary management goals
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Isaacson, Bernard Noam. Redefining forest stocking in the New Jersey Pinelands: forest evapotranspiration, understory light availability, and a quantitative framework to balance contemporary management goals. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-es27-yz98

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TitleRedefining forest stocking in the New Jersey Pinelands: forest evapotranspiration, understory light availability, and a quantitative framework to balance contemporary management goals
NameIsaacson, Bernard Noam (author); Grabosky, Jason (chair); Lathrop, Richard G (member); Smouse, Peter E (member); Serbin, Shawn P (member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2022
Other Date2022-05 (degree)
SubjectForestry, Natural resource management, Water resources management, Density management, Evapotranspiration, Forestry, Light availability, Pine, Stocking
Extent180 pages : illustrations
DescriptionIn establishing the Pinelands National Reserve, the United States Congress and the Legislature of the State of New Jersey articulated the primacy of protecting the forests, water resources, and rare species of this region. Though largely successful in preventing active losses from development, these legal protections and their cultural effects have coincided with significant passive changes to the condition of the region’s natural resources. We sought to develop a quantitative framework for these pitch pine (Pinus rigida) forests to relate forest condition to the stated goals for the land. We evaluated the effect of forest attributes and management on evapotranspiration (ET), the effect of forest occupancy on light availability and survival of open woodland understory plants, and developed a density management diagram (DMD) for pitch pine. ET was higher in stands with more pine and a more closed canopy; management also reduced ET: Regeneration harvests caused a greater and longer reduction than thinning, while prescribed burns caused a short and small-to-nonsignificant reduction in ET. There was a nonlinear relationship between stand density index (SDI) and understory light availability that was best described by the Michaelis-Menten equation. Our fitted Michaelis constant was equal to 1/3 of a published maximum stand density index for pitch pine, corresponding well with the theoretical onset of full site occupancy. We were able to describe upper thresholds of stand density index for survival of some of the open woodland understory species, which were mostly eliminated around SDI = 230. Our DMD can be used to illustrate the tradeoffs between live aboveground carbon mass, habitat suitability for open-canopy species, risk of southern pine beetle outbreak, crowning index, and ET. Much of the pine forests of the Pinelands are nearing the maximum size-density boundary, which places the aboveground live carbon pool at greater risk of loss from southern pine beetle and wildfire, reduces the available habitat for open-canopy species, and reduces groundwater recharge. We propose the opportunity to manage forest density on the landscape for multiple concurrent objectives and emphasize that maximizing aboveground live carbon comes with decreased stability from density-dependent threats.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-es27-yz98
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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