SREL Reprint #1912

Tree population dynamics in seven South Carolina mixed-species forests

Robert H. Jones1, Rebecca R. Sharitz2,3, Susanne M. James4, and Philip M. Dixon2

1School of Forestry, 108 M. White Smith Hall, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849
2Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Aiken, SC 29802
3Department of Botany, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
4Department of Biology, Berry College, Rome, GA 30149

Abstract: Seven 1-ha plots were established in second-growth, mixed-species forests across a soil moisture gradient in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. All trees in the plots were tagged in 1979 and measured in 1979 and 1989 to determine 10-yr recruitment of trees ≥4.5 cm DBH (in growth) and mortality. Ingrowth to mortality ratios and sums of ingrowth plus mortality were used to quantify shade tolerance and successional status of individual species. In all plots, small stem density decreased and large stem density increased, an indication that the forests were in mid-successional phases where competition is expected to be intense. Shade tolerant species, especially small tree life forms, had the greatest ratios of ingrowth to mortality. Large differences in population flux, even among shade tolerant species, indicated that different mechanisms can account for increases in populations of late-successional species. Within some species, ratios of ingrowth to mortality varied significantly across the gradient reflecting flooding or soil moisture effects on succession.

Keywords: forest succession, ingrowth, mortality, shade tolerance, population flux

SREL Reprint #1912

Jones, R.H., R.R. Sharitz, S.M. James, and P.M. Dixon. 1994. Tree population dynamics in seven South Carolina mixed-species forests. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 121:360-368. 

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).