The Dendroecology of Red Spruce Decline

Abstract

In the previous chapter, the current status of red spruce and spruce-fir forests was critically evaluated using a variety of forest survey data. The limited time covered by these data made any determination of trend in forest condition difficult and tenuous. However, there did appear to be reasonable evidence for a stand level deterioration of red spruce in the high-elevation spruce-fir forests of the Adirondacks and northern Appalachians since the 1960s. In contrast, survey data on red spruce in the low-elevation forests of New England and in most of the southern Appalachians did not indicate any unusual or inexplicable change in condition over the past several years. In this chapter, the tree-ring evidence for the decline of red spruce in the northern and southern Appalachians will be critically reviewed. We will also review and critique two competing hypotheses that were proposed to explain a regional growth decline found mainly in the northern red spruce population.KeywordsTree RingBasal Area IncrementRadial IncrementForest DeclineGrowth DeclineThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.