Vegetation-Site Relationships in the Presettlement Forests of Northeastern Ohio

Abstract

The presettlement forest of northeastern Ohio was dominated by two major forest types. The complex surficial geology and topography of the area created a variety of habitats favoring forests composed of beech and maple on some sites and oak and hickory on others. Binary discriminant analysis was applied to data from the early land survey records of Wayne, Ashland, and Holmes Counties to determine the environmental factors defining the two forest types. Beech (Fagus grandifolia) was largely confined to imperfectly drained soils derived from a relatively fine-textured till. White oak (Quercus alba) occupied the coarser-textured tills and residual soils. A two-dimensional gradient depicting, on one axis, the supply of moisture to the soil-water system by runoff and, on the other axis, the removal of moisture by internal drainage provides a framework for interpreting many of the more important species-environment relationships.