Forests of the Southeastern United States: Quantitative Maps for Abovegound Woody Biomass, Carbon, and Dominance of Major Tree Taxa

Abstract

Summary maps presented in this paper depict the current distribution patterns of aboveground woody biomass and carbon content of commercial forests in the southeastern United States. Contour maps of dominance of 10 important southeastern tree taxa are included. These maps were complied from growing—stock volume data available from the Continuous Forest Inventories (CFI) of the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) Forest Service, Southern and Southeastern Forest Experiment Stations. The maps of woody biomass and carbon establish the current for standing crop and carbon storage within forests of the southeastern United States, an area comprising 15% of the temperate forest zone of the earth. The contour maps of tree dominance quantify variation in composition within and between forest types previously mapped only qualitatively by the Forest Service. These dominance maps illustrate the individualistic nature of the distributions in response to gradients of environmental factors and effects of land management practices.