Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

USDA Logo U.S. Department of Agriculture

Publication Details

Title:
Long-term changes in forest biomass, tree species composition and nitrogen fixation following land use disturbance
Author(s):
Wurzburger, Nina; Elliott, Katherine J.; Miniat, Chelcy Ford
Publication Year:
2023
How to Cite:
These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation:
Wurzburger, Nina; Elliott, Katherine J.; Miniat, Chelcy Ford. 2023. Long-term changes in forest biomass, tree species composition and nitrogen fixation following land use disturbance. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2023-0013
Abstract:
These data are from long-term vegetation plots at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in western North Carolina. Data collection began in 1934-1935 and was repeated roughly a few times each decade between 1970 and 2013. Three different types of disturbances were applied in this study: selective cutting, clear cutting, and agricultural abandonment. The selective cutting experiment included 274 plots located in reference watersheds that received no subsequent disturbance after a selective cutting event in the early 1900s. There were 24 clear-cut disturbance plots which were located in watershed 7, which was clear-cut in 1976-1977. The 34 agriculture abandonment plots were located in watershed 6, which was logged and tilled in 1958 and planted with grass and maintained with fertilizer and herbicide, until abandoned in 1968. This data publication includes the following plot-level data: cumulative nitrogen fixation estimated from Robinia pseudoacacia (ROBPSE) tree density data and a model parameterized with local nitrogen fixation data as well as the maximum total above ground biomass (agb) of ROBPSE at any survey date. In addition, the following data are provided for each survey date (year) and plot: total agb and the mycorrhizal association for 27 common tree species, fraction of agb comprised by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) trees (excluding ROBPSE), and total agb (excluding ROBPSE, CASDEN and TSUCAN).

Keywords:
biota; Ecology, Ecosystems, & Environment; Plant ecology; Soil; Natural Resource Management & Use; Ecosystem services; Forest management; land use change; oak forest; biogeochemistry; symbiotic nitrogen fixation; timber harvest; Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory; North Carolina; Coweeta Basin; Nantahala National Forest; Blue Ridge Mountains; southern Appalachian Mountains; Appalachia
Related publications:
  • Wurzburger, Nina; Elliott, Katherine J.; Miniat, Chelcy Ford. Unknown. Forest mycorrhizal dominance depends on historical land use and nitrogen-fixing trees. Journal of Applied Ecology. [In press].
Metrics:
Visit count : 191
Download count: 7
More details
Data Access:
  • View metadata (HTML)
  • View file index (HTML), which lists all files in this data publication and short description of their contents
  • Download all files below for the complete publication:

Need information about Using our Formats?