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Althea Neighbors 9/19/17 402 Summary 6 Table 2: This table states the species importance values in the different forest types within the West Virginia University Research Forest (WVURF). An importance value is the relative density/relative basal area and is used to quantify each individuals significance within it’s ecosystem. The dominant species along the gaps were red and chestnut oak, tulip poplar, and red maple. There are 3 different forest types within WVURF- cove hardwood, mesic oak, xeric oak. The cove hardwood forest had 8 transects while the mesic oak and xeric oak had 24 and 28 transects respectively. While there was not a significant relationship between slope aspect or forest type and slope position, they did note that mesic oak forests were more concentrated on northern aspects where cove was most frequently found on northeastern aspects and xeric was found on southwest aspects. Table 3: Table 3 examined count and characteristics of gaps based on aspect, slope position, and forest type. The characteristics that the researchers looked at were size (m2), shape eccentricity, and minimum and maximum gap size. Shape eccentricity is the ratio of length:width. They did not find significance between forest type, aspect and topographic position, however there was significance in gap size across the forest types. Cove hardwood forests were more than twice as large as either of the oak forests. In the discussion it’s stated that this could be a result of the cove hardwood forest having more emergent species that are exposed to weather disturbances. Table 4: Table 4 examined the gap age as a function of aspect, slope position, and forest type. There were no significant differences found between mean gap age and aspect, slope position, or forest type. Gap age was notably higher in the oak forest types than in the cove hardwoods, which may have been related to the gypsy moth blight in the 1990s. It’s also important to note that these p-values were calculated with a reduced sample size (57 out of 80 gaps identified) so that may have impacted the significance values. Their sample size reduction was a result of the gaps being linear, thus being unable to conduct a radial growth analysis. Figure 2: Figure 2 is a comparison of species of gap makers and gap fillers as a function of percentage and importance value. Most gap makers and fillers were Quercus but the forest was

Althea Neighbors 9/19/17 402 Summary 6 also mainly composed of Quercus. Gaps mainly originated from snags, but blowdowns, snaps, and uprooted trees also resulted in gapping. Table 6: This table examines the oaks regeneration IV as a function of aspect, slope position, and forest type. There was a significant IV for Quercus in coves versus ridges which may have been a result of the oaks better ability to root in the coves. Disturbance can come in many forms and certain shapes of trees are more sensitive to disturbance than others. It’s also important to note that the age of the forest impacts the shape and size of gaps. If an old, larger tree falls it will cause more understory damage than a smaller, low canopy tree would....