Temporal variation in species recruitment and dendroecology of an old-growth white oak forest in the Virginia Piedmont, USA

The composition and temporal variation in species recruitment were examined in relation to annual dendrochronological data to determine the historical development and successional history of an old-growth mixed-oak (Quercus) forest in northern Virginia, USA. A ridge site in the upland Piedmont, alon g the Potomac River, was used to survey the old-growth forest, which is dom inated by Quercus alba L., Q. rubra L., Liriodendron tulipifera L., Fagus g randifolia Ehrh., and Carya glabra (Mill.) Sweet. The present age structure indicates that the oldest Q. alba established between 1748 and 1790. All t ree species other than Q. alba in the forest were <110 years of age, exclud ing a 166-year-old Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.. Quercus alba had fairly continuo us recruitment between 1740 and 1925. Peak recruitment of Q. rubra and C. g labra occurred between 1900 and 1930. Since 1930, tree recruitment in the f orest has been dominated by Fagus, Liriodendron, and Acer rubrum L.. Releas es in radial growth, indicative of moderate- and small-scale disturbances o ccurred in most of the oldest trees during the last 200 years. The master t ree-ring chronology exhibited a sharp decline from 1837 to 1844, associated with an extremely cold period in the region, followed by a general increas e from 1850 to 1930; growth remained high from 1930 to 1998. The shift in d ominance from white oak to red oak to mixed-mesophytic tree species after 1 900 is consistent with successional variation in other oak forests in the m id-Atlantic region. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.