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Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF434

Wildlands and Woodlands Stewardship Science Vegetation Plots in New England 2009-2015

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Data

Overview

  • Lead: Brian Hall, David Foster
  • Investigators: Jason Aylward, Edward Faison, David Orwig
  • Contact: Information Manager
  • Start date: 2009
  • End date: 2015
  • Status: complete
  • Location: New England
  • Latitude: +41.27 to +45.25 degrees
  • Longitude: -72.25 to -68.37 degrees
  • Elevation: 29 to 570 meter
  • Datum: WGS84
  • Taxa:
  • Release date: 2023
  • Language: English
  • EML file: knb-lter-hfr.434.2
  • DOI: digital object identifier
  • EDI: data package
  • DataONE: data package
  • Related links:
  • Study type: long-term measurement
  • Research topic: conservation and management; historical and retrospective studies; large experiments and permanent plot studies; regional studies
  • LTER core area: disturbance patterns, land use and land cover change, human-environment interactions
  • Keywords: community composition, community structure, conservation, human disturbance, inventories, management, species composition, vegetation dynamics
  • Abstract:

    The Wildlands and Woodlands (W&W) initiative is a broad, collaborative effort to protect 70% of New England in forest over the next 50 years. At the heart of this initiative is the awareness that our wooded landscapes provide immeasurable economic, environmental, and cultural benefits and the conviction that we should understand these systems better, manage them wisely, and conserve them for the future. As part of W&W, Stewardship Science seeks to encourage widespread application of an accessible approach to monitoring forests that interested landowners or conservation-minded individuals can use to track changes in their woods over time. Whether the motivation is active management for timber, understanding how forests are being shaped by factors ranging from climate change and ice storms to insect pests, or simple pleasure in observing nature’s dynamics, anyone equipped with a notebook, tape measure, pencil, and the willingness to puzzle through a book of tree identification can readily develop a robust and valuable set of observations. This idea is not new. For over 150 years, leading conservationists and ecological thinkers beginning with Henry David Thoreau have argued that there is much to be learned through simple, long-term measurements of forest growth and change. Yet there are still remarkably few examples of private landowners, land trusts, timber companies, or conservation organizations that base their understanding and management practices on a regular system of observations and measurements. Because the vast majority of forestland in New England is privately owned, most of these lands remain unmonitored, and management plans are often drawn up from casual rather than systematic observation. For more background information on the project, please see the Wildlands & Woodlands Stewardship Science manual.

    This data package contains vegetation and environmental data on 64 20x20m plots set up in four areas across New England by staff and summer field crews from the Harvard Forest. These plots were set up on properties owned by different conservation-minded organizations and families with the broad intent of sampling across different management regimes (managed vs. unmanaged), across contrasting forest tree communities, and across different forest ages. The sampled areas include properties in southern Petersham, northeast Vermont, and central Maine. These data are part of a central W&W Stewardship Science data repository created by the Harvard Forest to hold data collected by our Stewardship Science partners at Highstead and elsewhere. It is hoped that researchers will use these plots to inform land managers and engage landowners now, and especially in the future; as the plots get resampled, they will provide valuable insights on short-and long-term forest change.

  • Methods:

    Study areas were selected in locations where Harvard Forest researchers had existing relationships with landowners and where we could ensure some plots would be located in working woodlands and unmanaged wildlands. We wanted to locate plots across New England to sample a wide range of forest types from the transitional forests of Petersham, Massachusetts, to the northern hardwood forests of Vermont, and the northern conifer forests of mid Maine. Within each study area, plots were stratified to ensure adequate representation across locally diverse forest types, soil types, or land-use histories; see area-specific details below.

    Plot stratification at the Amherst Mountain site

    Harvard Forest researchers worked with Jake Metzler of the Forest Society of Maine to sample spruce/fir forests in the managed and unmanaged areas of the Amherst Mountain Community Forest. Jake supplied Harvard Forest with timber cruise data and Harvard Forest created polygons from the cruise data showing those areas with greater than 5% spruce basal area within the managed and the unmanaged areas. To avoid edges, the polygons were buffered in where they were within 50m of public-use roads and 30m of ATV trails or logging skid trails. The Create Random Points tool was used in the GIS to create 20 plot locations within each management type; plots had to be more than 50m from each other. A random number generator was used in Excel to randomly order the plots for sampling since the Create Random Points tool numbers points in a geographic sequential (non-random) manner. In 2010 the field crew sampled 6 spruce plots in the reserve area and 6 in the managed area.

    Plot stratification at the Alder Stream site

    The Northeast Wilderness Trust’s mission is to protect wilderness areas and they recently acquired the Alder Stream Preserve. Approximately half the Alder Stream Preserve was harvested within the last 20 years and the other half was last harvested at least fifty years ago, thus this area functioned as a way to track long-term forest regrowth following logging. George Bakajza provided Harvard Forest with a landcover map made by Steve Trombulak which was georeferenced into our GIS. It was decided to sample in three forest types in the area: 1) early successional forest, 2) mixed hardwood/conifer forest, and 3) recently logged areas. These types were digitized, buffered in 50m to reduce edge effects, and then the Create Random Points tool was used in the GIS to create 20 plot locations within each forest type; plots had to be more than 50m from each other. A random number generator was used in Excel to randomly order the plots for sampling since the Create Random Points tool numbers points in a geographic sequential manner. In 2010, the field crew sampled 3 plots in the recently logged areas, 3 in the mixed hardwood/conifer areas, and 2 in the early successional forest.

    Plot stratification at the Levi Pond site

    Levi Pond in Groton, VT is within the 238-acre Levi Pond Wildlife Management Area (LPWMA) and it is considered by the state to be “A no-timber harvest area set aside to develop into old-growth hardwood forests that will add to the unique experience of those who visit Levi Pond… and/or observe its large natural stand of great laurel (Rhododendron maximum). The Foster family owns the adjacent parcel and have created a 65-acre reserve. The forests in this area were heavily harvested for spruce and other timber species in the 19th century and as recently as 1960, but have been allowed to grow with little disturbance in the time up to the sampling. Beyond the 65-acre reserve on the Foster property, the forests have been harvested in the past ten years. Harvard Forest researchers wanted to sample the vegetation across the LPWMA and Foster reserve, but no vegetation maps existed. Since the combined properties were relatively small, it was decided to distribute plots randomly across the whole combined properties. The Create Random Points tool was used and plots were required to be 50m from each other and from the property boundaries. In 2009, the field crew sampled 16 randomly located plots and 2 additional plots in hemlock forest (LP-0024 and LP-0025).

    Plot stratification at the South Petersham site

    The South Petersham area was selected because three conservation-minded landowners (Harvard Forest, Massachusetts Audubon Society, The Trustees of Reservations) control a large block of adjacent protected parcels around Connor’s Pond. These owners have a history of working together and the location near the Harvard Forest makes this a convenient place to train summer field crews by Harvard Forest staff. The plots were stratified by soil drainage class, and inferred forest-establishment period. A GIS layer of NRCS soil types was condensed to include three drainage classes: 1) somewhat excessively to excessively drained, 2) somewhat moderately to moderately drained, and 3) moderately poor to very poorly drained. Forest establishment period was inferred by overlaying three map layers of woodland/forest, one from 1830 (HF), one from 1939 (WPA), and one from 1999 (MassGIS). Areas shown as woodland/forest in all three years were considered to be “Pre-1830 forest”, areas not forested in 1830 but forested in 1939 and 1999 were considered to be “Post-1830 forest”, and 1999 forests not forested in 1939 were considered to be “Post-1939 forest”. The soil-drainage types and inferred forest age classes were intersected in a GIS creating 9 combinations. One hundred plots were randomly placed in proportion to the area of each of the 9 types using the Hawth’s Tools extension in ArcGIS, with each plot more than 50m away from the combined soil drainage/forest age edge and more than 50m away from the nearest plot location.

    Plot Layout

    Field survey crews went to the preselected sites, installed corner markers, and made the quantitative and qualitative plot site descriptions shown in hf434-01-plot.csv. The plot coordinates refer to the plot’s southwest corner and the other three corners are located 20m in the cardinal directions (i.e. N and E from the SW corner, and E from the northern corner) with compass declinations set.

    Each plot corner was marked with an approximately 50cm section of 1.5” steel pipe or occasionally ½” rebar; the SW corner pipe of each plot was marked with a thin aluminum tag bearing the plot ID. More plots were generated than could be sampled with the knowledge that some locations would be determined to be unsuitable due to the presence of unknown roads, wetlands, etc. or that the vegetation would not be representative of the types it was assumed to be in the GIS. Field crews occasionally shifted plot locations to avoid edges and noted the new coordinates in their data sheets.

    Observations on all woody tree or shrub stems taller than 1.4m with a diameter at breast height (DBH) greater than 2.4cm were made and are described in hf434-04-tree-shrub.csv. Shrub and sapling stems taller than 1.4m and with a diameter less than 2.5cm were counted by species. The percent areal cover of plant species less than 1.4m tall were estimated across the whole plot using vegetation cover classes where P=present at less than 1% cover; 1=1-5% cover; 2=5-25% cover; 3=25-50% cover; 4=50-75% cover; 5=75-100% cover.

    The diameter of any stumps which were cut by forest managers or loggers were taken and an attempt was made to identify them to the species level. A single small soil sample was taken from each of the plot’s four corners, mixed up in a bag, and then sent to Brookside Labs in New Knoxville, Ohio for textural and chemical analyses.

  • Organization: Harvard Forest. 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366, USA. Phone (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595.

  • Project: The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. (ROR).

  • Funding: National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.

  • Use: This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

  • License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)

  • Citation: Hall B, Foster D. 2023. Wildlands and Woodlands Stewardship Science Vegetation Plots in New England 2009-2015. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF434 (v.2). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/93ddae64db926895f4b0af8b8681d7de.

Detailed Metadata

hf434-01: vegetation plots information

  1. PLOTID: unique identifier for each plot
  2. PLOTLOCATION: location of plot
  3. LONG: longitude of plot's southwest corner, WGS1984 system (unit: meter / missing value: NA)
  4. LAT: latitude of plot's southwest corner, WGS1984 system (unit: meter / missing value: NA)
  5. YEARSURVEY1: year of the first survey
  6. DATESURVEY1: date of the plot's first survey
  7. LANDSCAPEPOS: the relative position along a slope
  8. SLOPEDEG: estimate of the plot's slope in degrees as determined by a compass angle gauge (unit: degree / missing value: NA)
  9. ASPECT: compass aspect (facing) of the plot's slope (unit: degree / missing value: NA)
  10. CULTURALFEATURES: notes about human cultural features in or near the plot
  11. DISTURBDISEASENEARPLOT: notes about disturbance or disease in or near the plot
  12. NOTES: additional notes

hf434-02: soil chemical and textural analyses

  1. PLOTID: unique identifier for each plot
  2. SAMPLOCATION: location name
  3. SURVEY: number of the survey during which sample was taken
    • 1: first survey
  4. SOILSAMPLEYEAR: year sample was taken
  5. SAMPLEDESC2: notes from Brookside Labs
  6. BROOKSIDEID: identifier used by Brookside Labs not used in the rest of this data package
  7. SANDPCT: percent sand (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  8. SILTPCT: percent silt (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  9. CLAYPCT: percent clay (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  10. TEC: total exchange capacity (meq/100g) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  11. PH: pH; 1:1 soil to water (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  12. ORGPCT: percent organic matter (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  13. NRelPerAcre: estimated nitrogen release in pounds per acre. Values with NA were above Brookside Lab's maximum detection limit (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  14. Sppm: sulfur (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  15. Pppm: phosphorus (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  16. BRAYII_Pppm: Bray II phosphorus (mg/kg). Values of zero were recorded as <1 by Brookside Labs (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  17. Cappm: calcium (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  18. MGppm: magnesium (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  19. Kppm: potassium (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  20. Nappm: sodium (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  21. Capct: calcium (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  22. MGpct: magnesium (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  23. Kpct: potassium (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  24. Napct: sodium (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  25. OTHERBASEpct: other bases (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  26. Hpct: hydrogen (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  27. Bppm: boron (mg/kg). Values with NA were below Brookside Lab's minimum detection limit (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  28. Feppm: iron (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  29. MNppm: manganese (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  30. Cuppm: copper (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  31. ZNppm: zinc (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  32. Alppm: aluminum (mg/kg) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  33. Cpct: carbon (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  34. Npct: nitrogen (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  35. CNRATIO: carbon/nitrogen ratio (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)

hf434-03: species codes

  1. SPECIESCODE: species codes (not all species in this list will be encountered within these data tables)
  2. GENUS: genus
  3. SPECIESNAME: species
  4. COMMONNAME: common name
  5. FAMILY: family name

hf434-04: tree and shrub stem data

  1. PLOTID: name of plot
  2. SPECIES: species code (see hf434-03)
  3. DBHCM: diameter at breast height (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  4. VITALITY: whether stem is alive or dead
    • alive: stem is alive
    • dead: stem is dead
  5. MULTISTEM: a letter indicates that the stem shares a base with other stem(s). Stems that share a base will all have the same letter code for that species in that plot. None means it is an individual stem.
  6. NOTES: notes
  7. SURVEY: number of the survey during which sample was taken
    • 1: first survey
  8. SURVEYYEAR: year sample was taken

hf434-05: herb layer areal coverage data

  1. PLOTID: unique identifier for each plot
  2. SPECIES: species code (see hf434-03)
  3. COVERCLASS: estimate of species areal coverage/abundance
    • P: present at less than 1% cover
    • 1: 1-5% cover
    • 2: 5-25% cover
    • 3: 25-50% cover
    • 4: 50-75% cover
    • 5: 75-100% cover
  4. NOTES: notes
  5. SURVEY: number of the survey during which sample was taken
    • 1: first survey
  6. SURVEYYEAR: year sample was taken

hf434-06: shrub and sapling stem counts

  1. PLOTID: unique identifier for each plot
  2. SPECIES: species code (see hf434-03)
  3. TALLY: count of stems greater than 1.4m tall and less than 2.5cm DBH within the plot (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  4. NOTES: notes
  5. SURVEY: number of the survey during which sample was taken
    • 1: first survey
  6. SURVEYYEAR: year sample was taken

hf434-07: human-cut stump diameters

  1. PLOTID: name of plot
  2. SPECIES: species code (see hf434-03). Often the species could not be identified; these are listed as UNKNOWN, or HARDWOOD, etc.
  3. DIAMETERCM: diameter at breast height (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  4. MULTISTEM: a letter indicates that the stem shares a base with other stem(s). Stems that share a base will all have the same letter code for that species in that plot. None means it is an individual stem.
  5. NOTES: notes
  6. SURVEY: number of the survey during which sample was taken
    • 1: first survey
  7. SURVEYYEAR: year sample was taken