Twenty years of forest change in the woodlots of Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Abstract

Abstract Webster, C. R. (School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931), M. A. Jenkins (Twin Creeks Natural Resources Center, 1314 Cherokee Orchard Road, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, TN 37738), and J. H. Rock (Twin Creeks Natural Resources Center, 1314 Cherokee Orchard Road, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, TN 37738). Twenty years of forest change in the woodlots of Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 132: 280–292. 2005.—Changes in forest composition and structure were investigated by comparing two decades of permanent plot records (1977–1978 and 1995–2002) for the woodlots of Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. The importance of late-successional shade-tolerant species, such as Tsuga canadensis L. Carr. (eastern hemlock), increased in the understories and overstories of all of the forest types examined. The most significant increas...