Objectives: Tree cores were collected for major species (white oak, red oak, red maple, white pine and red pine) in order to better understand the stand origin, historical development, disturbance dynamics, and successional trajectory of “The Dome" in the Green Mountains National Forest, VT.
Principal Investigator: Paul Schaberg and Diane Burbank
Laboratory: Schaberg lab
Recommended Citation: Schaberg PG, Burbank, DH, Murakami PF, and Hansen CF. 2015. White oak, red maple and red pine tree cores from "The Dome", VT.
Project Contents: Data for 5 Plots, 75 Trees, 150 Cores
Project Period: 2015-10-01 to 2015-11-30
Species:
Acer rubrum
Pinus resinosa
Quercus alba
Data License: 
What's this?Description: This project, spearheaded by the USDA Forest Service, seeks to restore and maintain oak and oak-pine forests on the southern and western slopes of a mountain known as “The Dome” by reintroducing fire and the use of timber sales, other mechanical treatments, and herbicides. These particular forests are unique in Vermont as they appear to represent the northern edge of the range for several central Appalachian species like American chestnut and sassafras. Some of the habitat has abundant American beech and red maple in the understory with few oak saplings, suggesting mesophication and future shifts toward a northern hardwood ecosystem.
Related Publications: No related publications
Project Metadata
Taxonomic standard used: USDA Plants Database
How plots were selected: Plots were selected where our inventory has identified the need to characterize the disturbance history by general habitat type (e.g., dry oak forest/woodland with heath; dry oak forest with beech understory, red pine forest/woodland; white pine-red oak; dry-mesic oak forest with beech/red maple understory).
How trees were selected: Approximately 12 dominant and co-dominant trees per species were selected at each site.
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.
Added to the database: 09/06/2022
Last modified: 09/06/2022