Buffalo Beats North, Clay Lens Prairie Soil - OH005 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 : OH005.CRN Measurement file name : OH005.RWL Date checked : 28MAR05 Checked by : H. ADAMS AND J. LUKAS Beginning year : 1681 Ending year : 1995 Principal investigators: McClenahen & Houston Site name : Buffalo Beats North, Clay Lens Prairie Soil Site location : Ohio Species information : QUAL WHITE OAK Latitude : 3927 Longitude : -08209 Elevation : 314M Series intercorrelation: 0.711 Avg mean sensitivity : 0.254 Avg standard deviation : 0.577 Avg autocorrelation : 0.627 Number dated series : 62 Segment length tested : 50 Number problem segments: 5 Pct problem segments : 2.21 PART 5: CORRELATION OF SERIES BY SEGMENTS: oh005.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 1675 1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1724 1749 1774 1799 1824 1849 1874 1899 1924 1949 1974 1999 --- -------- --------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 1 0WO2021 1750 1995 .37 .48 .33A .17B .47 .62 .48 .77 .84 2 0WO2022 1710 1995 .36 .37 .41 .61 .44 .49 .64 .63 .56 .61 .74 3 0WO2031 1862 1995 .81 .78 .77 .87 .84 4 0WO2032 1880 1995 .67 .72 .81 .83 5 0WO2061 1940 1995 .89 .89 6 0WO2062 1939 1995 .83 .85 7 0WO2111 1927 1995 .84 .85 8 0WO2112 1922 1995 .80 .80 .85 9 0WO2121 1920 1995 .74 .75 .65 10 0WO2122 1924 1995 .78 .77 .79 11 0WO2131 1916 1995 .71 .73 .82 12 0WO2132 1920 1995 .58 .61 .82 13 0WO2142 1894 1995 .64 .67 .77 .87 14 0WO2151 1908 1995 .62 .64 .74 15 0WO2152 1881 1995 .59 .71 .69 .78 16 0WO2161 1929 1995 .66 .75 17 0WO2201 1930 1995 .63 .79 18 0WO2202 1930 1995 .69 .79 19 0WO2251 1926 1995 .83 .88 20 0WO2252 1892 1995 .62 .64 .76 .87 21 0WO2271 1896 1995 .73 .70 .63 .68 22 0WO2272 1909 1995 .61 .70 .83 23 0WO2281 1848 1995 .38 .39 .56 .48 .59 .68 24 0WO2282 1900 1995 .59 .75 .78 25 0WO2291 1905 1995 .68 .73 .78 26 0WO2292 1898 1995 .72 .73 .75 .82 27 0WO2301 1923 1995 .78 .78 .75 28 0WO2302 1890 1995 .72 .73 .76 .79 29 0WO2331 1937 1995 .78 .79 30 0WO2332 1946 1995 .72 31 0WO2341 1940 1995 .83 .83 32 0WO2342 1935 1995 .83 .85 33 0WO2352 1913 1995 .70 .77 .89 34 0WO2362 1939 1995 .84 .89 35 0WO2391 1850 1995 .51 .52 .62 .77 .81 36 0WO2392 1930 1995 .73 .76 37 0WO2421 1911 1995 .56 .56 .79 38 0WO2422 1870 1995 .71 .70 .64 .70 .80 39 0WO2431 1861 1995 .65 .69 .73 .76 .84 40 0WO2441 1917 1995 .84 .86 .86 41 0WO2442 1873 1995 .48 .56 .63 .80 .85 42 0WO2522 1940 1995 .82 .82 43 0WO2541 1870 1995 .63 .70 .75 .76 .81 44 0WO2542 1893 1995 .76 .71 .85 .86 45 0WO2551 1910 1995 .66 .78 .85 46 0WO2552 1920 1995 .72 .70 .79 47 0WO2591 1927 1995 .76 .83 48 0WO2592 1920 1995 .76 .79 .83 49 0WO2661 1929 1995 .68 .69 50 0WO2662 1926 1995 .53 .82 51 0WO2681 1930 1995 .81 .81 52 0WO2682 1923 1995 .79 .81 .82 53 WO41781 1681 1995 .56 .58 .49 .28B .35 .31A .27B .61 .68 .59 .35 .34 54 WO41782 1691 1995 .59 .61 .54 .41 .48 .45 .58 .77 .76 .73 .67 .71 55 WO41811 1908 1995 .79 .78 .82 56 WO41812 1867 1995 .39 .42 .59 .71 .78 57 WO41851 1867 1995 .75 .69 .73 .86 .89 58 WO41852 1866 1995 .79 .77 .70 .75 .87 59 WO41861 1922 1995 .76 .77 .87 60 WO41862 1920 1995 .65 .67 .81 61 WO41891 1938 1995 .66 .70 62 WO41892 1930 1995 .74 .77 Av segment correlation .58 .52 .47 .37 .48 .38 .38 .62 .66 .68 .74 .80 PART 7: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: oh005.rwl 14:02 Mon 28 Mar 2005 Page 8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 0WO2021 1750 1995 246 9 2 .518 .70 2.18 .481 .891 .229 2.74 .430 -.002 1 2 0WO2022 1710 1995 286 11 0 .538 .97 3.36 .489 .774 .242 2.67 .338 .014 1 3 0WO2031 1862 1995 134 5 0 .820 1.51 4.36 .793 .673 .291 2.73 .480 .004 1 4 0WO2032 1880 1995 116 4 0 .781 1.68 3.35 .649 .530 .277 2.66 .533 -.019 2 5 0WO2061 1940 1995 56 2 0 .896 1.84 3.54 .602 .414 .272 2.61 .584 .001 1 6 0WO2062 1939 1995 57 2 0 .834 2.33 4.13 .669 .286 .285 2.56 .609 .043 2 7 0WO2111 1927 1995 69 2 0 .827 1.77 3.22 .571 .263 .303 2.75 .579 -.041 1 8 0WO2112 1922 1995 74 3 0 .855 1.81 4.16 .695 .526 .283 2.63 .477 .009 1 9 0WO2121 1920 1995 76 3 0 .710 2.63 6.50 1.311 .818 .222 2.72 .673 -.012 1 10 0WO2122 1924 1995 72 3 0 .782 2.46 5.16 .866 .589 .230 2.61 .472 -.037 2 11 0WO2131 1916 1995 80 3 0 .775 1.64 3.22 .515 .497 .240 2.69 .454 .001 1 12 0WO2132 1920 1995 76 3 0 .745 1.86 4.18 .548 .405 .239 2.80 .494 .017 1 13 0WO2142 1894 1995 102 4 0 .770 1.58 2.73 .526 .685 .222 2.53 .481 -.035 1 14 0WO2151 1908 1995 88 3 0 .728 1.73 3.45 .504 .498 .229 2.69 .433 -.029 1 15 0WO2152 1881 1995 115 4 0 .725 1.69 3.68 .718 .630 .278 2.83 .550 -.044 1 16 0WO2161 1929 1995 67 2 0 .690 1.22 2.60 .493 .581 .260 2.65 .442 -.068 1 17 0WO2201 1930 1995 66 2 0 .699 .98 1.86 .399 .793 .223 2.52 .556 .012 1 18 0WO2202 1930 1995 66 2 0 .733 1.28 1.98 .327 .349 .226 2.50 .421 -.011 1 19 0WO2251 1926 1995 70 2 0 .853 1.69 2.94 .512 .421 .256 2.66 .503 -.007 1 20 0WO2252 1892 1995 104 4 0 .770 1.67 3.84 .757 .609 .314 2.67 .587 -.046 1 21 0WO2271 1896 1995 100 4 0 .696 1.71 3.83 .581 .594 .235 2.60 .402 -.026 2 22 0WO2272 1909 1995 87 3 0 .736 1.84 3.48 .471 .504 .187 2.63 .490 .004 2 23 0WO2281 1848 1995 148 6 0 .523 .82 2.39 .612 .924 .214 2.77 .468 .026 1 24 0WO2282 1900 1995 96 3 0 .704 1.18 2.57 .404 .624 .246 2.76 .530 -.047 1 25 0WO2291 1905 1995 91 3 0 .731 1.72 2.83 .459 .385 .254 2.73 .506 .042 1 26 0WO2292 1898 1995 98 4 0 .771 1.95 3.95 .698 .591 .266 2.71 .556 -.089 2 27 0WO2301 1923 1995 73 3 0 .725 1.09 3.42 .597 .751 .218 2.67 .465 -.033 1 28 0WO2302 1890 1995 106 4 0 .742 1.16 2.68 .474 .612 .267 2.68 .475 -.039 1 29 0WO2331 1937 1995 59 2 0 .766 1.72 3.76 .566 .562 .227 2.61 .470 -.042 1 30 0WO2332 1946 1995 50 1 0 .725 1.08 2.30 .330 .465 .239 2.59 .551 -.072 2 31 0WO2341 1940 1995 56 2 0 .843 1.92 4.23 .655 .317 .317 2.68 .711 -.026 1 32 0WO2342 1935 1995 61 2 0 .833 1.71 4.22 .829 .433 .335 2.71 .524 -.056 1 33 0WO2352 1913 1995 83 3 0 .785 2.05 4.76 .834 .698 .247 2.81 .523 -.049 2 34 0WO2362 1939 1995 57 2 0 .839 1.56 2.46 .463 .447 .244 2.69 .577 -.026 1 35 0WO2391 1850 1995 146 5 0 .659 .96 2.12 .432 .824 .193 2.69 .473 -.032 2 36 0WO2392 1930 1995 66 2 0 .733 1.11 1.80 .287 .521 .211 2.53 .475 -.048 1 37 0WO2421 1911 1995 85 3 0 .724 1.27 2.82 .382 .470 .234 2.71 .438 -.030 2 38 0WO2422 1870 1995 126 5 0 .749 1.13 3.71 .564 .736 .248 2.57 .351 -.026 2 39 0WO2431 1861 1995 135 5 0 .768 1.15 2.83 .513 .792 .241 2.62 .398 -.021 1 40 0WO2441 1917 1995 79 3 0 .844 2.03 4.18 .620 .418 .253 2.40 .342 .011 1 41 0WO2442 1873 1995 123 5 0 .726 1.54 3.73 .780 .759 .274 2.62 .419 -.037 1 42 0WO2522 1940 1995 56 2 0 .823 1.83 3.61 .640 .492 .283 2.68 .595 -.013 1 43 0WO2541 1870 1995 126 5 0 .752 1.24 2.60 .530 .526 .330 2.62 .417 -.005 1 44 0WO2542 1893 1995 103 4 0 .803 1.24 2.43 .476 .477 .331 2.63 .520 -.019 1 45 0WO2551 1910 1995 86 3 0 .742 2.25 4.79 .787 .374 .310 2.74 .536 .011 1 46 0WO2552 1920 1995 76 3 0 .739 2.69 5.16 .849 .275 .309 2.68 .500 .043 2 47 0WO2591 1927 1995 69 2 0 .794 1.35 2.72 .505 .352 .345 2.65 .618 -.045 1 48 0WO2592 1920 1995 76 3 0 .778 1.45 3.51 .591 .514 .337 2.64 .507 -.001 1 PART 7: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: oh005.rwl 14:02 Mon 28 Mar 2005 Page 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 () --- -------- --------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -- 49 0WO2661 1929 1995 67 2 0 .666 1.29 3.26 .570 .736 .238 2.58 .407 .006 2 50 0WO2662 1926 1995 70 2 0 .616 1.60 2.75 .407 .347 .234 2.45 .373 .002 1 51 0WO2681 1930 1995 66 2 0 .812 1.72 3.24 .489 .457 .233 2.57 .498 .024 1 52 0WO2682 1923 1995 73 3 0 .801 1.64 3.54 .451 .253 .238 2.63 .550 -.025 1 53 WO41781 1681 1995 315 12 3 .457 .72 1.58 .296 .859 .190 2.74 .434 -.031 1 54 WO41782 1691 1995 305 12 0 .621 1.00 3.77 .584 .886 .204 2.77 .506 -.011 1 55 WO41811 1908 1995 88 3 0 .783 1.44 4.10 .536 .603 .251 2.75 .480 -.074 1 56 WO41812 1867 1995 129 5 0 .622 1.47 4.41 .796 .715 .285 2.75 .447 -.074 1 57 WO41851 1867 1995 129 5 0 .808 1.10 3.06 .535 .659 .296 2.66 .450 .013 1 58 WO41852 1866 1995 130 5 0 .813 1.07 2.82 .448 .562 .285 2.88 .495 .003 1 59 WO41861 1922 1995 74 3 0 .789 1.62 3.71 .674 .572 .297 2.83 .494 -.008 1 60 WO41862 1920 1995 76 3 0 .723 1.77 4.84 .916 .655 .302 2.83 .566 -.017 1 61 WO41891 1938 1995 58 2 0 .686 1.27 3.95 .737 .772 .252 2.83 .580 -.040 1 62 WO41892 1930 1995 66 2 0 .757 1.96 4.53 1.084 .595 .324 2.72 .664 -.036 1 --- -------- --------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -- Total or mean: 6183 226 5 .711 1.41 6.50 .577 .627 .254 2.88 .482 -.017