ForestGEO network welcomes three new plots

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 2, April 2020.

ForestGEO, a Smithsonian-led global network of large-scale, long-term forest research sites, is pleased to welcome three new plots to its ranks.  The Ailaoshan plot is in a montane forest in subtropical China; the Niobrara plot and the Indian Cave plot encompass the forest-prairie transition zone in Nebraska, USA.  There are now 70 ForestGEO research sites. 

Buffalo amble by on the prairie’s edge at the Niobrara plot.  (photo by Sabrina E. Russo)

Min Cao, Principal Investigator for the new Ailaoshan plot (and also for Xishuangbanna, an extant ForestGEO plot), established the site with his research and field crew teams in 2014.  They have undertaken two censuses of the 20-hectare plot and report over 44,000 free-standing stems (of plants with a diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥ 1cm) that span 104 species – the most dominant species being within the Fagaceae, Theaceae, and Lauraceae families.

Sabrina Russo has long been an active member of the ForestGEO network, notably through her mentorship at ForestGEO’s annual analytical workshops, and now as the principal investigator for Niobrara and Indian Cave.  Niobrara is a 20.16-ha plot located at the northern border of the Nebraska-South Dakota border.  The field crew finished its first census in July 2019 and noted the presence of both paper birch (Betula paperifera) and Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), a rarity for Nebraska.  The crew was poised to complete Indian Cave’s first census in the spring of 2020.  The 18.40-ha plot contains eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), two cherry species (Prunus virginiana, P. serotina), catalpa (Catalpa speciosa), and pale dogwood (Cornus amomum). It is located in the south-east corner of the state.

Comments

[Amy Dykstra]

Pinus ponderosa is certainly not a rarity for Nebraska, but Betula papyrifera may be. The Nebraska-SD border is about 350 miles long - naming a county would identify the location more clearly.

[Caly McCarthy for ForestGEO]

Thank you for your comment and your interest in the Niobrara plot! The Niobrara plot is located in Brown County, Nebraska. You are of course correct that paper birch is far more rare than is Ponderosa pine in the state of Nebraska. Indeed, there is plenty of Ponderosa pine along the Niobrara River and in the Pine Ridge region of Nebraska. Our main point was that this lovely tree species is otherwise rare in the rest of the State outside of this area, and that its distribution follows the Niobrara River in the eastern parts of its range, where the Niobrara plot is. Please let us know if you’d like more information about the Niobrara plot.