• MUÑOZ, BETHANY L.
  University of Maine
  

How do partial harvesting disturbances similar to natural disturbance regimes in the northeast influence long-term forest productivity? And how do intensive harvesting disturbances, dissimilar to natural disturbance regimes in the northeast influence long-term forest productivity? This study sought to quantify the long-term (50-year) effects of whole-tree harvest (WTH), stem-only harvest (SOH), stem-only harvest with prescribed burning (SOHB), site condition (e.g. O horizon thickness) and their potential interaction on stand structure and composition, and total aboveground carbon stock. Long-term effects of WTH and SOH were evaluated, relative to an unharvested reference, on soil and foliar nutrient concentrations. The relationship between canopy openness and single-tree selection cutting was assessed, and the effects of this relationship on understory species diversity of both vascular and non-vascular plants is quantified.