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2/07/2008 Aspen Move Upward on an Adirondack Slope
In an article in Geographical Review, Susy Svatek Ziegler presents the vegetation history of steep slopes west of Noonmark Mountain that were burned by a fire accidentally started by campers in 1999. The burned area, in the east central Adirondacks, is at an elevation of 700-945 meters. At this elevation Mountain Paper Birch could be expected to repopulate the burned ground and to be succeeded by Red Spruce and Balsam Fir. This happened after a fire in the area in 1903. After the 1999 fire, however, Quaking Aspen and Big Tooth Aspen replaced the burned spruce-fir forest. Various microsite conditions contributed to the growth of the aspen, which are typically found below 760 meters, and a wetter than normal spring and summer in 2000 and 2001 presumably helped. It is nevertheless possible that a change in climate to "warmer, wetter conditions" over the past hundred years also contributed to the growth of the aspen. "It would be difficult to prove that global warming caused aspen to move upslope, but the trend is worth monitoring."
Source: Susy Svatek Ziegler, "Postfire Succession in an Adirondack Forest," Geographical Review 97 (4): 467-483, October 2007.