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

Swank, Wayne T.; Webster, Jackson R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195370155 ISBN 13: 9780195370157

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0195370155
• ISBN 13: 9780195370157
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272