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Coastal erosion at Stonewall Beach on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, U.S.A., has exposed a thick layer of peaty sediments rich in botanical remains, including well-preserved tree trunks. We identified the species of the tree trunks based on wood anatomy, analyzed pollen and macrofossils in the sediments, and determined the ages of the tree trunks and peat with 14C dating. The tree trunks were identified as Pinus strobus (white pine), and pollen assemblages featured high percentages of P. strobus in sediments associated with the trunks. The tree trunks and peat dated to ∼10,700–9800 calibrated 14C years before present. These findings confirm that Martha's Vineyard, like other parts of southern New England, was dominated by P. strobus forest during the early Holocene. At that time, regional climate was drier than today and Martha's Vineyard was not yet isolated from the mainland by postglacial sea-level rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examines the influence of land use and climate change on forest biomass and composition in Massachusetts. The study utilizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Level III ecoregions to delineate areas of distinct climatic and edaphic conditions. It examines the initial forest condition and model sensitivity, land use, and the changes in aboveground biomass (AGB) and species composition.

Abstract: We compared the understory communities (herbs, shrubs, and tree seedlings and saplings) of old-growth and second-growth eastern hemlock forests (Tsuga canadensis) in western Massachusetts, USA. Second-growth hemlock forests originated following clear-cut logging in the late 1800s and were 108–136 years old at the time of sampling. Old-growth hemlock forests contained total ground cover of herbaceous and shrub species that was approximately 4 times greater than in second-growth forests (4.02±0.41%/m2 versus 1.06±0.47%/m2) and supported greater overall species richness and diversity. In addition, seedling and sapling densities were greater in old-growth stands compared to second-growth stands and the composition of these layers was positively correlated with overstory species composition (Mantel tests, r >0.26, P <0.05) highlighting the strong positive neighborhood effects in these systems. Ordination of study site understory species composition identified a strong gradient in community composition from second-growth to old-growth stands. Vector overlays of environmental and forest structural variables indicated that these gradients were related to differences in overstory tree density, nitrogen availability, and coarse woody debris characteristics among hemlock stands. These relationships suggest that differences in resource availability (e.g., light, moisture, and nutrients) and microhabitat heterogeneity between old-growth and second-growth stands were likely driving these compositional patterns. Interestingly, several common forest understory plants, including Aralia nudicaulis, Dryopteris intermedia, and Viburnum alnifolium, were significant indicator species for old-growth hemlock stands, highlighting the lasting legacy of past land use on the reestablishment and growth of these common species within second-growth areas. The return of old-growth understory conditions to these second-growth areas will largely be dependent on disturbance and self-thinning mediated changes in overstory structure, resource availability, and microhabitat heterogeneity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article investigates the influence of long-term disturbance dynamics on old-growth forest structure. It applies tree-ring data to reconstruct the stand dynamics of various old-growth eastern hemlock stands located in western Massachusetts. It compares downed coarse woody debris and live-tree size distributions in old-growth and adjacent second-growth hemlock stands and examine the importance of contrasting developmental histories on these structures. It also explores how the information gained can inform ecosystem management efforts intended to restore old-growth forest system to managed forests in the region.

Abstract: Forest harvesting is one of the most significant disturbances affecting forest plant composition and structure in eastern North American forests, yet few studies have quantified the landscape-scale effects of widespread, low-intensity harvests by non-industrial private forest owners. Using spatially explicit data on all harvests over the last 20 years, we sampled the vegetation at 126 sites throughout central and western Massachusetts, one-third of which had not been harvested, and two-thirds of which had been harvested once since 1984. Seedling and sapling densities increased with increasing harvest intensity, but decreased to levels similar to unharvested sites by year 20 for all but the most intensive harvests. The composition of understory trees appears to be only slightly changed by harvesting, and was strongly correlated with adult tree composition. Regeneration was dominated by Betula lenta followed by Pinus strobus; Quercus spp. exhibited little sapling recruitment, even in Quercus-dominated stands. Total vascular plant species richness increased substantially with harvesting on low C:N sites (i.e., rich soils), but was only slightly increased on high C:N sites. While harvesting was associated with a statistically significant change in vascular plant composition, non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed that climate (temperature, precipitation) and C:N ratios were the major correlates of composition. Overall, the compositional impacts of harvesting were minor, perhaps because of the low-intensity of harvesting. However, our results support observations from elsewhere in the northeastern U.S. of limited oak regeneration on both harvested and unharvested sites. In addition, our results suggest that increased harvest intensity may be expected to alter forest composition, particularly on rich sites where invasive species may increase as a result of harvesting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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Abstract Aim Long-term studies of landscape dynamics in relationship to changes in cultural, environmental and disturbance factors have great potential for increasing the understanding of modern ecological conditions and improving the development of conservation plans that incorporate historically important processes. In this study we compiled archaeological, historical, palaeoecological and ecological information on Martha's Vineyard to investigate temporal and spatial variation in landscape pattern and process. Although <250 km2 , this island off the Massachusetts coast embraces remarkable geographical variation and harbours uncommon plant and animal assemblages that make it a national priority for conservation. Location The study embraces the entire island of Martha's Vineyard, which lies c. 8 km south of Cape Cod and the mainland of Massachusetts. The triangular-shaped island contains three major geomorphological regions: moraine forms a series of irregular and subparallel ridges and hills 40 to over 80 m in elevation that terminate at the western end of the island in high cliffs at Gay Head and Squibnocket; sandy glacial outwash overlying moraine spreads down the northeastern end of the island forming a region of low undulating hills and shallow depressions 15–30 m in elevation, and an extensive outwash plain stretches across the central and eastern part of the island and slopes gently from 30-m elevation in the north to <3 m towards the southern coast where it is dissected by a series of north–south trending valleys that terminate in coastal ponds. In all areas except the southwest corner the island is underlain by >100 m of Quaternary and coastal plain sediments. Methods Long-term records of vegetation, fire, natural disturbance and human activity were compiled over the past 2000 years and across the physiographic variation on the island. Palaeoecological interpretations of vegetation, fire, climate and land-use history are based... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim This study evaluates the long-term history of grassland, heathland and shrubland communities that are high priorities for conservation in the north-eastern US and support numerous globally rare species. Such an historical perspective is necessary in order to develop appropriate conservation and management approaches for these communities. Location The study area encompasses the coastal region that extends from Cape Cod, MA to Long Island, NY, including the islands of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Block Island. Methods In order to determine whether open-land habitats occurred in the study region prior to European arrival in the seventeenth century and to assess changes to these communities through the historical period, a wide range of palaeoecological, archaeological, ethno-historical, biological and field data were reviewed. Information about the history of human impacts on these communities was used to interpret landscape change over time and to evaluate current and potential conservation and management approaches. Results The region was predominantly wooded prior to widespread Euro-American land clearing beginning in the seventeenth century, with some areas of early successional habitats, primarily on exposed sites and near Native American settlements. Grasslands, heathlands and shrublands increased dramatically as a result of intensive and primarily agricultural disturbance through the historical period. The decline in recent decades of these communities results from extensive residential and commercial development, and from widespread abandonment of traditional agricultural practices, especially intensive grazing. Main conclusions Despite considerable uncertainty as to the pre-European distribution and abundance of species characteristic of grasslands, heathlands and shrublands, historical disturbances have been sufficiently widespread and severe that it is unlikely that modern species assemblages closely resemble those that occurred prior... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim The United States (US) and other affluent countries consume vast quantities of global natural resources, but contribute proportionately less to the extraction of many raw materials. This imbalance is due, in part, to domestic policies intended to protect the environment. Ironically, developed nations are often better equipped to extract resources in an environmentally prudent manner than the major suppliers. Thus, although citizens of affluent countries may imagine that preservationist domestic policies are conserving resources and protecting nature, heavy consumption rates necessitate resource extraction elsewhere and oftentimes under weak environmental oversight. A major consequence of this ‘illusion of natural resource preservation’ is greater global environmental degradation than would arise if consumption were reduced and a large portion of production was shared by affluent countries. This paper considers some implications of the consumption, management and conservation of forests and wood at a local and global scale. Location We focus on Massachusetts, the eighth most forested state in the USA (by area), the third most densely populated, and an affluent region with consumption rates that are among the highest in the country. Methods Estimates of wood production and consumption are generated, and comparisons are made with other commonly used materials (e.g. steel, concrete, aluminium). Results A comparison of the feasibility and environmental impact of various strategies for dealing with rising wood demand suggests that the US should strive to: (1) reduce per capita consumption of wood and its substitutes, (2) recycle forest products more effectively, (3) protect extensive areas of intensively managed and unmanaged forests and (4) promote sound forest management where the environmental consequences are mild. Forestry and the sustainable generation of wood in Massachusetts would allow preservation of primary forests elsewhere in... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim and location The research investigated the long-term effects of human disturbance, namely nineteenth century agricultural land-use, on the modern species composition, structure and distribution of Rich Mesic Forests (RMF) in western Massachusetts, USA. RMF are a species-rich north-eastern variant of the Mixed Mesophytic Forest Type of eastern North America. Methods Land-use history patterns were reconstructed for two towns (c . 16,000 ha) from the onset of widespread European settlement and agricultural land-use in the late eighteenth century until present. Vegetation and a range of environmental variables were sampled in sixty-one 10 × 10 m plots in thirty-four forest stands with varying histories of human disturbance. Vegetation data were ordinated (DCA) to identify patterns of variation and related environmental and historical factors. The distribution patterns of individual taxa in relation to historical land-use and environmental factors were analysed using G -tests of independence and logistic regression. Associations between species secondary forest colonization ability and life history characteristics (e.g. diaspore dispersal mode, degree of vegetative spread) were assessed. Results Persistent compositional differences were documented between the vegetation of primary forests and post-agricultural, secondary forests indicating that distribution patterns for many plant species still reflect the open, agricultural environment of the nineteenth century, despite the current predominance of forest cover in the study area. A major factor driving modern vegetation patterns in RMF is the ability and rate of colonization by forest herbs. In particular, species with seeds lacking morphological adaptations for dispersal (barochores) and those which produce seeds with elaiosomes to encourage ant dispersal (myrmecochores) are less frequent in secondary forests. Environmental differences between primary and secondary forests, although present, appear... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim This study compares the magnitude and trajectory of vegetation and ecosystem function dynamics associated with the direct impact of hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand; HWA) infestation vs. the indirect consequences of HWA-induced damage in the form of salvage and pre-emptive logging of hemlock [Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carriere] forests. Location The study was conducted within an area extending from southern Connecticut up to and including the Connecticut River lowlands west to the Berkshire Plateau in central Massaschusetts, USA. Methods Overstorey and understorey vegetation and ecosystem function parameters such as decomposition and nitrogen cycling were examined in logged and unlogged portions of ten hemlock stands varying in HWA damage intensity. Results Intensive hemlock logging generated more rapid and pronounced microenvironment and vegetation changes than chronic HWA damage. Black birch (Betula lenta L.) seedling densities and percent cover of brambles (Rubus L. spp.), sedges (Carex L. spp.) and hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula Michx.) were significantly higher in recent harvests vs. HWA-damaged and undamaged sites. High black birch sapling densities (>7000 ha-1 ) were common in the older harvests but not in adjacent, HWA-damaged portions of these sites. Undamaged sites had 20% more forest floor mass than HWA-damaged sites and double the mass of older cuts. Mass loss rates of cellulose paper suggest that conditions were more favourable for decomposition in the damaged and older logged sites. Recently cut sites had significantly larger inorganic N pools than undamaged forests, although total net nitrogen (N) mineralization rates were not significantly different among treatments. Nitrification rates of 0.2 kg ha-1 day-1 measured in the oldest cuts were three times greater than in HWA-damaged sites and over 200 times greater than in undamaged hemlock sites. However, resin bag capture in the... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim The aim of this study was to document changes in forest composition, structure and distribution across Massachusetts, USA, from the time of European settlement (seventeenth century) to the present, and to investigate environmental and historical influences on regional patterns of variation. Location The study area encompasses the State of Massachusetts (69.9–73.5°E, 41.3–42.9°N), a 21,000-km2 area in the north-eastern United States. Methods A wide range of historical sources was used to document changes in land use and land cover for the historical period. Witness trees from early land surveys enabled us to evaluate vegetation patterns prior to widespread European settlement, and to compare historical and modern species composition. Nineteenth century maps of forest cover and contemporary agricultural censuses documented forest patterns during the peak agricultural period. Geographic Information System analyses were used to relate variation in climate, geology and land-use history to historical and modern forest composition. Results Massachusetts has a complex east-to-west environmental gradient involving changes in physiography, climate, geology and natural disturbance. Until the middle of the twentieth century, agriculture was the most important land-use across the region; although the percentage of land in agriculture and the timing of major land-use changes were remarkably consistent across the state, historical forest patch sizes varied locally and regionally in relation to physiography. Forest composition of both early historical and modern forests is most strongly related to environmental conditions, especially variation in climate. Historical land-use resulted in a state-wide increase in early successional tree species and a dramatic, although recovering, change in forest structure. Main conclusions At a regional scale, environmental conditions apparently control broad patterns of variation in vegetation... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim We evaluate environmental and historical determinants of modern species composition for upland vegetation types across Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a region that supports numerous uncommon species assemblages that are conservation priorities. Location The study area encompasses the entire peninsula of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Methods Historical changes in land-use and land-cover across the study region were determined from historical maps and documentary sources. Modern vegetation and soils were sampled and land-use and fire history determined for 352 stratified-random study plots. Ordination and classification were used to assess vegetation variation, and G -tests of independence and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to evaluate relationships among individual species distributions, past land-use, surficial landforms and edaphic conditions. Results At the scale of this investigation, modern species distributions result from individualistic response to a range of environmental and historical factors, including geography, substrate and disturbance history, especially the pattern of past agricultural activity. The structure or composition of all vegetation types in the region have been shaped by past land-use, fire, or other disturbances, and vegetation patterns will continue to change through time. Conservation efforts aimed at maintaining early successional vegetation types may require intensive management comparable in intensity to the historical disturbances that allowed for their widespread development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the developmental history of Tsuga canadensis stands in four forest sites in central Massachusetts since the arrival of people from Europe. Use of pollen stratigraphies, tree ring chronologies, and long-term archival records to show the influence of anthropogenic and natural disturbance; Evaluation of the forest composition at the four sites.

The article focuses on the preliminary steps taken by teachers and students to go on a camp. The seventh grade students of the Weeks Junior High School, Newton, Massachusetts, planned a five-day school camp. The most important thing was to develop the correct attitudes in the students toward the camp. Parent approval and cooperation was sought. Students were briefed on personal clothing and equipments. Recreational activities were planed for the evenings. Eating in groups was planned.

Old-growth forests are currently identified as core components of regional conservation and forest-reserve planning efforts by agencies and organizations across the northeastern United States. Despite the importance of these ecosystems from an ecological and conservation standpoint, major questions remain concerning their actual extent, location, and configuration in many states. Here we report a substantially revised estimate for individual tracts and the total area of old-growth forests in Massachusetts based on analysis of historical documents and extensive field research and mapping. We estimate that the total area of old-growth in the state is 453 ha, in 33 stands that range from 1.2 to 80,9 ha in size. Over 80% of these forests occur in the Berkshire Hills and Taconic Mountains in the extreme western part of the state. These forests are structurally unique and contain some of the oldest documented Tsuga canadensis (hemlock) and Picea rubens (red spruce) in New England, as well as the second-oldest documented Betula lenta (black birch) in the country. Due to their relatively small size and isolated character, these areas are susceptible to human and natural disturbance and require protection, including substantial buffer areas. Old-growth stands will enhance the value and function of designated forest reserves and will gradually become surrounded by forests of increasingly similar structure and ecosystem characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many parts of the eastern US, the provision of ecosystem services depends on private land. In these regions, decisions about land management and conservation made by private landowners can have significant effects on habitat and other ecosystem services. Advancing permanent conservation of land can be particularly challenging in dynamic rural-to-urban landscapes facing development pressures. We estimated private landowner “conservation awareness” using a mail survey instrument to assess relative familiarity, knowledge, and experience with various conservation and land management options. Conservation awareness differed significantly by town, implying hotspots and troughs of awareness, potentially leading to significant geographical variation in landowner decision-making and long-term conservation futures. We were surprised to find that conservation awareness did not necessarily diminish in more suburbanized environments of our study area. Higher conservation awareness was related to enhanced conservation social capital at the town level as well as relative affluence. We suggest that low conservation awareness could represent a precursor to or symptom of eventual land use change and hence loss of habitat. As a result, conservation efforts should focus not only on biophysical aspects such as habitat connectivity and rarity, but also on the conservation awareness of owners of private land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]