Principal Investigator: Joe B. Birch (The University of Georgia)
Principal Investigator: James L. Cooley (University of Georgia)
Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 1980-11-01; Completion Date: 1983-05-01;
Keywords: Biomass, flood adapted, floodplain, forest, hydroperiod, moisture limited, oxygen limited, production, subsidy-stress.
Description:
Floodplain forest biomass production followed a bimodal gradient from the wettest to driest sites. The wettest sites were continually flooded and supported a bicultural water tupelo-baldcypress forest that was highly adapted through an extensive water-root system to constant flooding and periodic flushing by riverine floods. The wood production (6379 kg/ha/yr) of this forest was among the highest of the floodplain forests studied. The next wettest site was flooded much of the year, had waterlogged soil for much of the rest of the year, and had a drained soil surface for extended periods. This tupelo-baldcypress, root oxygen limited, forest did not have a water-root system and had the lowest biomass production (3553 kg/ha/yr) of any of the forests studied. The sites that were flooded during some portion of the year but well drained during most of the growing season while maintaining a relatively available soil moisture level were the most productive (6883 kg/ha/yr) floodplain forests. The forest that was only slightly flooded each year by the highest floods had a much lower biomass production (4623 kg/ha/yr) than the heavily flooded and well drained forest. Sites subjected to intermediate levels of flooding and well drained soils had an intermediate level of biomass production (an average of 5240 kg/ha/yr). The upland hardwood, moisture limited forest that is no longer flooded had a low biomass production (3677 kg/ha/yr) similar to that of the waterlogged soil, tupe10-baldcypress forest.