Deadwood Dynamics: A Case Study at Prince William Forest Park, Virginia

Deadwood, characterized as both downed woody material (DWM) and standing and dead stems, i.e., snags, is a significant component of terrestrial forest ecosystems. Deadwood amount and structure may influence potential wildfire hazard by altering combustible DWM mass and creating fuel structures that increase fire intensity and spread. Deadwood is also critical to carbon storage and nutrient cycling and may vary based upon the size classes of individual deadwood pieces. Lastly, deadwood structural variability has been found to positively affect species richness in bees, salamanders, birds, and small mammals, such as shrews and woodland mice. However, in the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont, there are no accessible tools to rapidly estimate deadwood of long unmanaged second growth forests to help inform future management decisions. Management agencies within this region, such as the National Park Service, may benefit from a greater understanding of the potential factors that influence deadwood accumulation, retention, and decomposition. Therefore, a project was funded by the National Park Service to investigate deadwood dynamics at Prince William Forest Park (PRWI). From May to August 2023, a deadwood inventory was conducted using planar intercepts nested within fixed radius plots along the gradient of forest cover types, aspect, elevation, and soil orders found within PRWI. Forest cover type was significant in the generalized linear model for percent dead basal area, total DWM, fine woody material, litter, and duff mass. The Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) forest cover type had the highest percent dead basal area and total DWM mass per hectare. Elevation, aspect, and soil order were not significantly related to percent dead basal area, total DWM, 1,000 hr, fine woody material, litter, and duff mass. Data from this study may serve as a baseline for similar second growth forests of the mid-Atlantic Piedmont.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Forestry

Department dc:contributor.department

Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Maslyukova, Daria Yurevna

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Coates, Thomas Adam

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Emrick, Verl III
• Ford, W. Mark

• Downed Woody Material
• Duff
• Fuel Loading
• Litter
• Snags

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:40069

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/118673