Buffalo Beats North, Ridgetop Forest Site - OH004 Additional Site Information Jim McClenahen and Daniel Houston Documentation forthe Buffalo Beats White Oak Chronologies from Southeastern Ohio, USA contributed by Jim McClenahen1 and Daniel Houston2 May, 1997 The two white oak (Quercus alba L.) chronologies were collected in December, 1995 from adjacent ridgetop locations in southeastern Ohio, and are referred to as the prairie site and adjacent forest site, respectively. The prairie site consists of a lens of calcareous red clay soil and has been traditionally known as Buffalo Beats because of the natural opening containing native prairie vegetation. The site from which the prairie chronology was collected is actually the northernmost of two such clay soil areas on this ridgetop. Located in northern Athens County, Ohio, Buffalo Beats is characterized as a relict prairie within otherwise typical upland mixed oak forest (Jones 1944; Wistendahl 1975). Wistendahl (1975) described an open prairie of approximately 0.30 ha surrounded by a 0.87 ha transition forest on a ridgetop calcareous clay soil lens. Only the white oak series were crossdated and measured, although age was determined on cores obtained from all north prairie site (and, later, the south prairie site) trees >10 cm dbh. Two internal reports have been prepared from studies we conducted in relation to the two prairie sites, although only the white oak chronologies from the north prairie study were measured and submitted to the ITRDB (McClenahen and Houston, 1996; McClenahen and Houston, 1997) . The abstract from the second report (McClenahen and Houston, 1997) is presented below: ABSTRACT Buffalo Beats, a relict prairie area on ridgetop calcareous clay lens soils in southeastern Ohio, is undergoing succession from open prairie to forest. A previous study considered the tree age structure, and ring-width response of Quercus alba to climate, within the northernmost of the two prairie soil sites and adjacent ridgetop forest. Our objective in the present study is to extend the previous work by comparing the age structure and spatial patterns of forest development within the north and south prairie soil areas and adjacent forest. We employed a dendroecological approach to estimate the pith year from cores taken from all prairie trees >10 cm dbh and canopy trees in the adjacent forest. The early centuries of vegetation history on Buffalo Beats remain obscure, but published studies employing the abundance of opaline phytoliths indicate these clay lens soils have been dominated by forbes over the long-term. Our tree-ring chronologies, two of which date to the late 1600's, suggest that the north prairie (traditionally recognized as Buffalo Beats) may have been at least partly forested over much of the past two centuries. Age distributions of canopy trees on the two prairie sites were fundamentally similar. Within the past two centuries, it appears there have been two episodes of tree invasion onto the areas of clay lens soil at Buffalo Beats. The first episode began around 1850 and continued until about 1890, but tree density remained relatively low and was mainly comprised of Q. alba. A high proportion of these trees now occupy canopy positions. A second, more dramatic episode of tree recruitment began on the prairies around 1910, lead by Q. alba, which peaked in the 1930's and included a mixture of six Quercus species. We speculate that this last tree invasion may have been enabled by a reduction in fire frequency in southeastern Ohio. The chronosequence of tree encroachment onto the prairies was not spatially uniform. Rather, some areas were more or less sparsely occupied by trees (mostly Q. alba) that appeared in the latter 1800's. Beneath and among these, and within some (north prairie) or all (south prairie) of the remaining open prairie patches, a mixture of mainly Quercus saplings arose primarily within the 1920's and 1930's. Presently, the forested portions of the clay lens soils are mostly closed-canopy, dominated by Q. alba, and consist of a range of tree ages and sizes. RELATED LITERATURE Hardin, E.D. 1988. Succession in Buffalo Beats prairie and surrounding forest. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 115:13-24. Jones, C.H. 1944. Studies in Ohio floristics-II. Vegetation of Ohio prairies. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 71:536-548. Kalisz, P.J. and S.E. Boettcher. 1990. Phytolith analysis of soils at Buffalo Beats, a small forest opening in southeastern Ohio. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 117:445-449. McClenahen, J.R. and D.B. Houston. 1996. Comparative forest age structure and growth response within the Buffalo Beats Research Natural Area. Unpub. report submitted to The Ohio Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Columbus, OH, and U.S. Forest Service, Ironton Ranger District, Wayne National Forest, Pedro, OH, 25p. McClenahen, J.R. and D.B. Houston. 1997. Comparative forest age structure on two calcareous clay soil sites within the Buffalo Beats Research Natural Area. Unpub. report submitted to The Ohio Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Columbus, OH, and U.S. Forest Service, Ironton Ranger District, Wayne National Forest, Pedro, OH, 24p. Wistendahl, W.A. 1975. Buffalo Beats, a relict prairie within a southeastern Ohio forest. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 102:178-186. CHRONOLOGY FILE LISTINGS FILE NAME DESCRIPTION Oh005.rwl Crossdated raw ring-width measurements for white oaks on the north prairie clay soil site. Oh004.rwl Crossdated raw ring-width measurements for white oaks in the adjacent (non-prairie) forest, ridgetop residual soils; canopy trees. Oh005a.crn ARSTAN white oak chronology from the prairie site. Oh004a.crn ARSTAN white oak chronology from the adjacent ridgetop forest site. Oh005r.crn RESIDUAL white oak chronology from the prairie site. Oh004r.crn RESIDUAL white oak chronology from the adjacent ridgetop forest site. Oh004.txt Documentation for the chronologies in WP6.1 format. 1P. O. Box 272, Shreve, OH 44676 21823 Burbank Road, Wooster, OH 44691 Buffalo Beats White Oak COFECHA output: Chronology file name : OH004.CRN Measurement file name : OH004.RWL Date checked : 28MAR05 Checked by : H. ADAMS AND J. LUKAS Beginning year : 1856 Ending year : 1995 Principal investigators: McClenahen & Houston Site name : Buffalo Beats North, Ridgetop Forest Site Site location : Ohio Species information : QUAL WHITE OAK Latitude : 3927 Longitude : -08209 Elevation : 314M Series intercorrelation: 0.745 Avg mean sensitivity : 0.278 Avg standard deviation : 0.776 Avg autocorrelation : 0.720 Number dated series : 43 Segment length tested : 50 Number problem segments: 3 Pct problem segments : 1.71 PART 5: CORRELATION OF SERIES BY SEGMENTS: oh004.rwl 14:02 Mon 28 Mar 2005 Page 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Correlations of 50-year dated segments, lagged 25 years Flags: A = correlation under .3281 but highest as dated; B = correlation higher at other than dated position Seq Series Time_span 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1899 1924 1949 1974 1999 --- -------- --------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 1 0WO2731 1864 1995 .71 .69 .74 .65 .62 2 0WO2732 1900 1995 .75 .83 .80 3 0WO2771 1933 1995 .61 .66 4 0WO2772 1867 1995 .65 .58 .68 .84 .86 5 0WO2781 1897 1995 .55 .53 .69 .75 6 0WO2782 1890 1995 .39 .51 .72 .74 7 0WO2791 1866 1995 .75 .68 .83 .89 .86 8 0WO2792 1876 1995 .45 .77 .83 .83 9 0WO2801 1870 1995 .63 .71 .88 .86 .86 10 0WO2802 1877 1995 .79 .77 .89 .88 11 0WO2841 1904 1995 .61 .66 .76 12 0WO2842 1913 1995 .62 .75 .77 13 0WO2861 1880 1995 .65 .83 .88 .88 14 0WO2862 1884 1995 .77 .78 .89 .88 15 0WO2871 1891 1995 .66 .70 .83 .88 16 0WO2872 1891 1995 .64 .69 .83 .89 17 0WO2881 1877 1995 .42 .73 .85 .85 18 0WO2882 1870 1995 .30A .46 .72 .83 .81 19 0WO2901 1867 1995 .38 .42 .64 .81 .88 20 0WO2902 1909 1995 .72 .79 .87 21 0WO2941 1935 1995 .76 .82 22 0WO2942 1934 1995 .74 .86 23 0WO2981 1890 1995 .75 .80 .77 .75 24 0WO2982 1890 1995 .82 .84 .82 .77 25 0WO2991 1869 1995 .22B .33 .84 .78 .80 26 0WO2992 1863 1995 .64 .51 .70 .82 .76 27 0WO2992 1863 1995 .66 .54 .71 .81 .72 28 0WO3001 1885 1995 .49 .77 .75 .74 29 0WO3002 1875 1995 .29B .74 .72 .62 30 0WO4201 1868 1995 .78 .76 .82 .83 .92 31 0WO4202 1910 1995 .65 .65 .76 32 0WO4211 1867 1995 .71 .73 .82 .84 .82 33 0WO4212 1903 1995 .67 .79 .83 34 0WO4241 1866 1995 .52 .52 .70 .83 .89 35 0WO4242 1878 1995 .66 .79 .87 .88 36 0WO4261 1887 1995 .71 .67 .60 .59 37 0WO4262 1882 1995 .54 .53 .64 .72 38 0WO4271 1876 1995 .83 .68 .67 .88 39 0WO4272 1879 1995 .56 .79 .88 .89 40 0WO4281 1864 1995 .67 .57 .72 .84 .88 41 0WO4282 1866 1995 .71 .66 .71 .79 .84 42 0WO4291 1890 1995 .80 .83 .78 .74 43 0WO4292 1856 1995 .69 .63 .77 .84 .85 Av segment correlation .60 .61 .73 .78 .81 PART 7: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: oh004.rwl 14:02 Mon 28 Mar 2005 Page 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Corr //-------- Unfiltered --------\\ //---- Filtered -----\\ No. No. No. with Mean Max Std Auto Mean Max Std Auto AR Seq Series Interval Years Segmt Flags Master msmt msmt dev corr sens value dev corr () --- -------- --------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -- 1 0WO2731 1864 1995 132 5 0 .671 .86 1.96 .311 .546 .263 2.72 .500 -.032 1 2 0WO2732 1900 1995 96 3 0 .788 1.37 2.64 .439 .531 .231 2.58 .446 .006 2 3 0WO2771 1933 1995 63 2 0 .627 1.21 2.44 .376 .648 .211 2.53 .433 .037 1 4 0WO2772 1867 1995 129 5 0 .790 1.49 3.77 .838 .844 .257 2.67 .454 -.021 1 5 0WO2781 1897 1995 99 4 0 .670 2.23 5.79 1.254 .812 .294 2.57 .385 .016 1 6 0WO2782 1890 1995 106 4 0 .638 1.63 4.62 .927 .757 .302 2.64 .334 -.006 1 7 0WO2791 1866 1995 130 5 0 .830 1.36 3.38 .725 .723 .323 2.75 .509 .008 1 8 0WO2792 1876 1995 120 4 0 .702 1.46 3.20 .814 .794 .299 2.76 .510 .064 1 9 0WO2801 1870 1995 126 5 0 .807 1.19 2.53 .524 .691 .271 2.79 .588 -.025 1 10 0WO2802 1877 1995 119 4 0 .817 1.37 3.06 .587 .748 .242 2.70 .546 .038 1 11 0WO2841 1904 1995 92 3 0 .711 1.61 4.27 .607 .462 .282 2.79 .463 -.067 2 12 0WO2842 1913 1995 83 3 0 .732 1.72 3.83 .590 .357 .249 2.58 .446 .004 3 13 0WO2861 1880 1995 116 4 0 .828 1.71 3.78 .807 .749 .269 2.65 .509 -.065 1 14 0WO2862 1884 1995 112 4 0 .837 1.71 4.16 .814 .637 .310 2.66 .433 -.010 2 15 0WO2871 1891 1995 105 4 0 .789 2.35 5.86 1.155 .662 .322 2.64 .549 -.071 1 16 0WO2872 1891 1995 105 4 0 .786 2.34 5.85 1.149 .670 .318 2.65 .557 -.069 1 17 0WO2881 1877 1995 119 4 0 .712 1.25 2.91 .549 .626 .308 2.86 .416 .023 1 18 0WO2882 1870 1995 126 5 1 .644 1.05 2.52 .451 .600 .327 2.76 .481 -.022 1 19 0WO2901 1867 1995 129 5 0 .740 1.87 4.86 1.087 .838 .257 2.72 .456 -.038 1 20 0WO2902 1909 1995 87 3 0 .781 2.41 4.68 .833 .739 .204 2.48 .416 -.020 1 21 0WO2941 1935 1995 61 2 0 .777 1.82 5.50 .690 .409 .232 2.56 .418 -.027 1 22 0WO2942 1934 1995 62 2 0 .782 2.36 3.94 .689 .400 .276 2.39 .499 -.054 1 23 0WO2981 1890 1995 106 4 0 .744 1.23 3.41 .782 .839 .230 2.64 .443 -.065 1 24 0WO2982 1890 1995 106 4 0 .797 1.36 3.95 .859 .826 .244 2.64 .541 -.036 1 25 0WO2991 1869 1995 127 5 1 .677 1.37 3.62 .842 .801 .251 2.67 .480 -.037 1 26 0WO2992 1863 1995 133 5 0 .733 1.14 3.15 .640 .807 .241 2.63 .410 -.011 1 27 0WO2992 1863 1995 133 5 0 .724 1.14 3.13 .638 .803 .238 2.68 .467 -.023 1 28 0WO3001 1885 1995 111 4 0 .696 1.46 3.04 .766 .803 .254 2.49 .374 -.045 2 29 0WO3002 1875 1995 121 4 1 .534 1.34 4.39 .906 .756 .288 2.60 .361 -.022 1 30 0WO4201 1868 1995 128 5 0 .845 1.45 2.79 .632 .756 .234 2.56 .401 -.041 1 31 0WO4202 1910 1995 86 3 0 .727 1.43 2.46 .440 .553 .247 2.57 .480 .008 1 32 0WO4211 1867 1995 129 5 0 .785 1.45 3.41 .798 .810 .282 2.62 .404 -.029 1 33 0WO4212 1903 1995 93 3 0 .754 1.22 2.14 .526 .775 .231 2.70 .498 -.038 2 34 0WO4241 1866 1995 130 5 0 .746 1.56 4.53 .968 .859 .257 2.61 .442 -.019 1 35 0WO4242 1878 1995 118 4 0 .823 1.65 4.45 1.014 .849 .246 2.48 .439 -.037 1 36 0WO4261 1887 1995 109 4 0 .619 1.22 3.30 .667 .608 .369 2.91 .588 .021 1 37 0WO4262 1882 1995 114 4 0 .640 1.13 4.17 .654 .593 .393 2.63 .386 -.008 2 38 0WO4271 1876 1995 120 4 0 .782 1.61 4.03 .836 .663 .336 2.61 .492 -.024 1 39 0WO4272 1879 1995 117 4 0 .789 1.62 4.42 .793 .662 .294 2.80 .563 -.016 1 40 0WO4281 1864 1995 132 5 0 .795 1.57 3.99 1.002 .857 .282 2.62 .535 -.034 1 41 0WO4282 1866 1995 130 5 0 .780 1.30 3.40 .786 .848 .289 2.69 .432 -.035 1 42 0WO4291 1890 1995 106 4 0 .766 1.72 4.79 1.086 .784 .320 2.68 .535 -.021 1 43 0WO4292 1856 1995 140 5 0 .790 1.60 4.98 1.165 .826 .301 2.76 .485 -.041 1 --- -------- --------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -- Total or mean: 4806 175 3 .745 1.51 5.86 .776 .720 .278 2.91 .468 -.021