Point Quarter Lab (1)

Results This study was conducted at the Rice center and it was a fairly sunny day with a chilly atmosphere. The density (D) , relative density (RD), basal area (BA), relative basal area (RBA), and relative frequency( RF), and Important Value (IV) of the various tree species were calculated by Excel (Table 1) . The mean point to plant distance is 3.07 and mean per plant area is 9.43. Loblolly pine was the dominant species amongst all the species observed in the forest. Loblolly species had the greatest density followed by the Red Maple which was second ( Figure 1). Loblolly species had the greatest importance value which was 210.56 and then the Red Maple had the second largest importance value which was 46.42 Figure 2). Discussion Based on the results the Loblolly Pine and Red Maple were the dominant tree species in this forest location. The Loblolly pine has the highest importance value and highest density which is 674.51 .Loblolly species are one of the most planted tree species in North America and are able to live in a wide range of environments, for example they go from Delaware and expand till Florida (Fei and Steiner 2007 ). This tree species is extremely common in most places with few exceptions such as the Mississippi River Valley and Texas. It is known to grow in the north due to the temperature and in the west because of the low precipitation (Fei and Steiner 2007).The second dominant species in this forest was the Red Maple tree species which had a density of 171.14 .Red Maple trees have been known to be abundant in North America and continue to expand throughout the region (Walters and Yawney 1990). A study done by Walters and Yaney explains how the Red Maple not only continues to grow even more but it is starting to expand on to regions where it did not grow before such as Illonois and Missouri (Walter and Yawney 1990).

The Loblolly pine is a mixed hardwood forest and is suffering due to the effects of tree cutting (Dahlgreen and Driscoll 1994). Tree cutting on this species has had detrimental effects such as a decrease in nutrients for the forest environment (Dahlgreen and Driscoll 1994).The Loblolly species is constantly being affected by human activities such as thinning in order to control the density in the forest and leaving space for other trees to grow (Carino and Biblis 2009). Due to the high presence of Loblolly Pine and the clear evidence on the usage of this tree species this forest succession stage is a secondary succession because there are various disturbances to this forest but the soil is still intact in the area For future studies we can focus on the long term effect of climate affecting the forest. This study would be conducted over a year and the density of the forest would be calculated at the end of each seasonal period to see whether or not the climate if there is a drastic difference of the density of the forests between the different seasonal periods.

Appendix Table 1. Data summary for all species per hectare; (D) density; (RD%) relative density; (RBA%) relative basal area; (RF%) relative frequency; (IV) importance value. Common Name D RD % RBA % Rf % IV Loblolly Pine 674.5158 67 76.56072 67 210.5607 Red Maple 171.1458 17 12.42683 17 46.42683 Sweet Gum 70.4718 7 5.563198 7 19.5632 Southern Red Oak 40.2696 4 1.984047 4 9.984047 Blackgum 10.0674 1 0.392881 1 2.392881 Green Ash 10.0674 1 0.565748 1 2.565748 Tulip Poblar 10.0674 1 0.7229 1 2.7229 White Oak 10.0674 1 1.143283 1 3.143283 White Elm 10.0674 1 0.640395 1 2.640395 Total 1006.74 100 100 100 300

Figure 1. Density of each species per hectare Figure 2. Importance value for each species observed