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Fire Regimes Of Lower-Elevation Forests In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, U.S.A., Lisa Battaile Laforest

Doctoral Dissertations

Disturbance is a natural part of any forest ecosystem. When disturbance regimes are altered, the forest stands will reflect those changes. Southern Appalachian xeric pine-oak woodlands are one forest type that has experienced such change, primarily in the form of fire suppression. The western side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains stands of large trees that escaped earlier intensive logging, show evidence of past fire, and provide an ideal setting for reconstructing stand histories. For three lower-elevation (ca. 500 m ASL) study sites, I used crossdated yellow pine tree-ring chronologies and records from cross-sections taken from living and dead …