Paleoecological assessment of watershed history in PRIMENet watersheds at Acadia National Park, USA
Schauffler M, Nelson SJ, Kahl JS, Jacobson GL, Haines TA, Patterson WA, Johnson KB. 2007. Paleoecological assessment of watershed history in PRIMENet watersheds at Acadia National Park, USA. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 126(1-3):39-53
Paleoecological reconstructions of forest stand histories for two upland watersheds at Acadia National Park in Maine were completed to support related watershed chemistry studies. The project hypothesis was that forest type and fire history influence long-term cycling and storage of atmospheric mercury and nitrogen within watersheds. The unburned watershed has been dominated by spruce (Picea rubens) and fir (Abies balsamea) for 500 years or more and has not recently burned or been substantially cleared. The burned watershed is dominated by a heterogeneous forest of patchy hardwood, mixed wood, and softwood stands. A large portion of this watershed burned severely in 1947 and probably more than once in the 1800s, and has supported heterogeneous successional forests for 200 years or longer. The results support the underlying premise that the experimental design of this watershed research can be used to infer landscape controls on biogeochemical processes.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Schauffler, M.; Nelson, S.; Kahl, J.; Jacobson, G.; Haines, T.; Patterson, W.; Johnson, K.
- Units
- ACAD , ARD
- Keywords
- Acadia National Park, ARD_Park-Air-Info_Collection, Assessment, Atmospheric Deposition, Cadillac Brook, Climate, Community Structure, Contaminants, Deposition, Disturbance, Evaluation, FIRE, Forest, Forest Communities, Geochemistry, Hadlock Brook, Health, Historic Vegetation, Inventory, Mercury, Mercury (Hg), Monitoring, Monitoring, Mount Desert Island, Nitrogen, Nitrogen (N), Plants (Plantae), Pollen, Soil, Terrestrial, Terrestrial: forested, Toxics, Vascular Plants