Remeasurement of Permanent Vegetation plots in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA, and the Implications of Climatic Changes on Vegetation
Becking RW and Olson JS. 1978. Remeasurement of Permanent Vegetation plots in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA, and the Implications of Climatic Changes on Vegetation. Publication No. 1111, ORNL HM-6083. Oak Ridge National Labs. Environmental Sciences Division
Two summers of field work, re-inventorying permanant vegetation plots established fifteen years earlier, were done to monitor the changes. The results suggest that an increase in one degree centigrade could lead to botanically significant changes, especially in the spruce-fir forests, and that increases of 3 or 5 degrees might eliminate them in the ecosystem, including many endemic species, that associate with them. The weakened condition of the trees, from pollution and the adelgid, would hasten their end.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Becking, Rudolf; Olson, Jerry
- Date of Issue
- 1978
- Publisher
- Oak Ridge National Labs. Environmental Sciences Division
- Units
- GRSM
- Keywords
- APHN, Appalachian Highlands Network, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, GRSM, GRSM-01676, GRSM-01790, Monitoring, Plant Studies, Plots, SER, Southeast Region, Vegetation