Increasingly, attention is being paid to the role coarse woody debris (CWD) plays in forest ecosystems. CWD has been shown to provide valuable wildlife habitat, support food webs and contribute to nutrient storage and cycling, and mediate hydrological and geomorphic process. Timber management may be altering CWD dynamics by replacing aging stands with younger, more vigorous ones. The specific objectives of this study were 1) to quantify differences in coarse woody debris characteristics among bottomland hardwood forest stands with different management histories, and 2) to determine how differences in tree species composition and forest structure in bottomland hardwood forests influence coarse woody debris characteristics. Transects were established in ten forest stands with different management histories. Line intercept sampling was conducted to evaluate CWD characteristics, and point-centered-quarter sampling was used to compare characteristics in live vegetation. Large standard deviations were associated with most parameters measured, but results suggested that stands that have not been recently managed support more characteristics associated with structurally mature forest than stands that have been recently harvested. In particular, the Bayou Cocodrie NWR old growth natural area expressed characteristics such as relatively large volumes of CWD, a relatively high frequency of large diameter logs, snags, and trees, and a more stratified canopy and established mid-story. More research is needed to better understand the inherent variability in CWD and live vegetation characteristics among bottomland hardwood forests before explicit correlations between forest management and CWD dynamics can be inferred.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-06122008-092433 |
| Date | 12 June 2008 |
| Creators | Cochran, John Wesley |
| Contributors | Sammy L. King, Richard Keim, Andy Nyman |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06122008-092433/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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