A study was established to evaluate underplanting as a method of reestablishing shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina. Replicated treatment plots were harvested to retain 0, 15, 30, or 45 square feet of basal area per acre. Bareroot and containerized stock with small and large plugs were established within the treatment plots. Large plug seedlings achieved the highest first year survival followed by the small plug and bareroot seedlings. Underplanted seedling growth was inversely related to residual overstory density after two growing seasons. Large plug seedlings achieved the greatest height and diameter growth, followed by the small plug and bareroot seedlings. The results of this study suggest that underplanting may be a suitable regeneration option for the initial establishment of shortleaf pine on Piedmont sites. Further improvements in seedling survival and growth may be realized by planting containerized seedlings with large plugs.

We examined tree rings from cross-sections of shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) timbers extracted from a house in Forsyth County, Georgia, that was reportedly built in the mid-19th Century during the Antebellum Period (pre-1860). Our goals were to (1) determine the probable construction year for the house to help assess its possible historical significance, and (2) create a new long-term reference chronology for the northern Georgia area where such chronologies are lacking. Sections of shortleaf pine were removed from the structure during a renovation project in 2001. Sixteen sections were used to build a floating tree-ring chronology 217 years in length from series that crossdated conclusively with other series both graphically via skeleton plots and statistically via COFECHA. We then statistically evaluated the probable absolute temporal placement of this chronology using several regional tree-ring chronologies from the southeastern U.S. A statistically significant (p , 0.0001) correlation between our chronology and a shortleaf pine chronology from Clemson, South Carolina, anchors our chronology between 1652–1868. Two missing rings are probable in the early portion of our chronology, but we currently do not have a sufficient number of samples to conclusively identify their exact placement. No cluster of outermost rings was found to support the reported construction date of 1851, although the outermost rings on 13 of 16 samples dated before 1851. This new chronology could aid further dating of wood from archaeological sites and historical structures, and establish an initial data set that could eventually provide important new insights about the climate of northern Georgia during the 17th–19th Centuries.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-228). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-228). Also available on the Internet.

Phytophthora cinnamomi is a soil-borne oomycete pathogen causing root rot in susceptible host species. P. cinnamomi is thought to have originated in Southeast Asia, but has since been introduced to many regions around the world, where it causes dramatic declines in many forest tree species. In the eastern US, the primary susceptible tree species of concern are American chestnut (Castanea dentata), white oak (Quercus alba), and shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata). American chestnut, functionally eliminated in the early 1900s by the rapidly acting chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), has been the subject of decades-long breeding efforts aimed at improving chestnut resistance to chestnut blight. To improve chestnut restoration success, and restoration of other susceptible species, the distribution patterns of P. cinnamomi on a landscape scale must be better understood. This project was initiated to develop an improved method for detecting P. cinnamomi to permit high-throughput screening of forest soils, and to implement the improved detection approach in characterizing the distribution patterns of P. cinnamomi in developing soils on reclaimed surface mines in eastern Kentucky, as well as mature forest soils within an undisturbed watershed in a reference-quality eastern Kentucky forest. We developed an improved detection method using a molecular DNA-amplification approach (PCR), which demonstrated similar sensitivity to traditional culture-based methods, but required less time and space than traditional methods. We used this detection approach to screen soils from a chronosequence of reclaimed surface mines (reclaimed at different points in time) to evaluate whether reclaimed surface mined sites become favorable for P. cinnamomi colonization over time. Our analysis detected P. cinnamomi at the two older sites (reclaimed in 1997 and 2003), but we did not detect P. cinnamomi at the two newer sites sampled (reclaimed in 2005 and 2007). These results suggest that surface mined sites become favorable for P. cinnamomi colonization over time, and should not be considered permanently “Phytophthora-free.” We also collected ~200 samples from a watershed in UK’s Robinson Forest, from plots representing a gradient of topographic position, slope, and aspect. This survey indicated that P. cinnamomi distribution in forests is complex and can be difficult to predict; however, P. cinnamomi was detected in both drier upslope sites and in moister drainage sites.