Objectives: Red Rocks Park, located along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain in South Burlington, Vermont is comprised of a rich diversity of forest communities including the state-significant limestone bluff cedar-pine forest. The objective of our study was to determine the impact of historical climate regimes and pollution deposition on the growth of eight tree species (four conifers and four hardwoods) with a particular focus on northern white cedar and eastern red cedar – species that help define the Limestone Bluff Cedar-Pine Forest – a rare upland natural community recognized by that state of Vermont as ecologically significant.
Principal Investigator: Paul Schaberg, Paula Murakami, Christopher Hansen, Rebecca Stern
Laboratory: Schaberg lab
Recommended Citation: Schaberg PG, Murakami PF, Hansen CF, Stern RL. 2022. Exploring environmental drivers of growth for tree species associated with a rare limestone bluff cedar-pine forest in Vermont.
Project Contents: Data for 1 Plot, 63 Trees, 123 Cores
Project Period: 2016-10-01 to 2019-10-31
Species:
Fraxinus americana
Thuja occidentalis L.
Juniperus virginiana L.
Data License: Data is available upon request
What's this?Description: We measured tree ring growth of dominant and co-dominant eastern red cedar (collected in 2017), northern white cedar (collected in 2017) and white ash (collected in 2019) in Red Rocks Park in South Burlington, Vermont and combined this data with previous increment core collections of eastern hemlock, white pine, American beech, red oak, and white oak (collected in 2016) at the same site to compare individual species’ growth with climate parameters including air temperature (maximum and minimum) and precipitation (both rain and snow) as well as pollution deposition. Increment core data from the previous core collections at Red Rocks Park are similarly archived on the DEN under the following projects: “Growth trends and environmental drivers of major tree species of the northern hardwood forest”, “Eastern white pine and eastern hemlock growth: possible tradeoffs in response of canopy trees to climate and pollution”, “White oak chronologies of the Champlain Valley of Vermont”, and “Growth of canopy red oak near its northern range limit: current trends, potential drivers, and implications for the future”.
Related Publications: No related publications
Project Metadata
Taxonomic standard used: USDA Plants Database
How plots were selected: This site (plot) was chosen due to its rich diversity of forest communities and history of little human disturbance.
How trees were selected: Approximately 15-20 dominant and co-dominant trees for each species were selected.
Exclusion of trees (if any): Trees with bole or crown damage were excluded.
How cores were collected: Two 5 mm increment cores were extracted from each tree at breast height, 180° from each other, and perpendicular to the slope.
How cores were processed: Increment cores were dried, mounted and sanded using standard methods. Tree rings were visually crossdated using the list method, microscopically measured using a Velmex sliding stage unit and MeasureJ2X software (0.001 mm resolution) followed by the use of COFECHA to detect and correct crossdating errors.
Exclusion of cores (if any): A small number of cores were discarded since they were poorly correlated with the master chronology (i.e., below Pearson critical correlation 99% confidence levels) due to unusual growth trends that were not representative of overall growth at the site.
Added to the database: 06/21/2022
Last modified: 06/21/2022