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GROWTH-TREND DECLINES OF SPRUCE AND FIR IN MID-APPALACHIAN SUBALPINE FORESTS
Citation:
Adams, H., S. Stephenson, T. Blasing, AND D. Duvick. GROWTH-TREND DECLINES OF SPRUCE AND FIR IN MID-APPALACHIAN SUBALPINE FORESTS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-85/360 (NTIS PB86179207), 1985.
Description:
Dendroecological analysis of 258 increment growth cores collected from red spruce, balsam fir, and Fraser fir in central West Virginia and western Virginia indicates marked declines in growth-trend during the past 20 years similar to that reported for spruce and fir in high-elevation forests of the northern Appalachians. Consequently, growth-trend declines of conifers in subalpine forest ecosystems of eastern North America are apparently more widespread than previously realized and might therefore be related to a large-scale change in air quality. The initiation of growth-trend decline was often synchronous with the onset of a major drought, but the growth rates have failed to recover since the late 1960s when the drought ended. (Copyright (c) 1985 Pergamon Press Ltd).