Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) Site 6 - USMF6001
Additional Site Information

Richard P. Guyette, Michael C. Stambaugh


Dating Method: Crossdated

Abstract: Forest history is a critical link in understanding the 
treatment effects of harvest methods. The harvesting of Missouri 
Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) study sites is a rare 
opportunity to gain a long-term perspective on Ozark forests and 
their response to disturbances. The major objective of the forest 
history project is to document forest disturbances and their 
ecological consequences. Information about tree growth, climate, 
wildland fire, disturbance, and human-environmental interactions 
can be salvaged from recently cut trees, woody remnants, and 
increment cores. This information is used in the interpretation 
of treatment effects and in assessing the overall ecological role 
of present and past disturbances on MOFEP flora and fauna. This 
project uses a dendrochronological approach to provide a long-term 
perspective on ecological processes and sylvicultural harvesting 
systems. Specific objective of this project are to: 1) construct 
fire history chronologies from dated fire scars, 2) construct 
disturbance histories for the MOFEP sites, 3) quantify anthropogenic 
variables and effects at the MOFEP sites, 4) use disturbance, 
landscape, and human variables to examine long and short-term 
ecosystem responses, 5) examine climate-ecosystem interactions 
via growth increments of organisms.

Sample Storage Location: Missouri Tree-Ring Laboratory, 21 ABNR Bldg.
Department of Forestry, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211

Fire History Graphs: Fire History Graphs illustrate specific years when 
fires occurred and how many trees were scarred. They are available in both 
PDF and PNG formats. The graphs consist of 2 parts, both of which show the 
X axis (time line) at the bottom with the earliest year of information on 
the left and the latest on the right.
The Fire Index Plot is the topmost plot, and shows two variables: sample 
depth (the number of recording trees in each year) as a blue line along 
the left Y axis, compared with the percent trees scarred shown as gray bars 
along the right Y axis.
Below, the Fire Chronology Plot consists of horizontal lines representing
injuries by year on individual sampled trees. Symbols are overlain that 
denote the years containing the dendrochronologically-dated fire scars or
injuries. The sample ID of each tree is displayed to the right of each
line. The Composite Axis below represents the composite information from
all individual series. The symbols used to represent the fire scars or
injuries, and the filters used to determine the composite information,
are shown in the legend.
These graphs were created using the Fire History Analysis and Exploration
System (FHAES). See http://frames.nbii.gov/fhaes/ for more information.