A Unique old-growth ponderosa pine forest in northern Arizona

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications School of Public Policy and Leadership 2008 A Unique old-growth ponderosa pine forest in northern Arizona Scott R Abella University of Nevada, Las Vegas, scott.abella@unlv.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/sea_fac_articles Part of the Forest Biology Commons Repository Citation Abella, S R (2008) A Unique old-growth ponderosa pine forest in northern Arizona Journal of the Arizona- Nevada Academy of Science, 40(1), 1-11 http://dx.doi.org/10.2181/1533-6085(2008)40[1:AUOPPF]2.0.CO;2 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s) You are free to use this Article in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV For more information, please contact digitalscholarship@unlv.edu A UniqueOld-Growth Ponderosa Pine Forest inNorthern Arizona SCOTT R ABELLA1, Ecological Restoration Institute, Northern Arizona 86011-5017 address: Public Lands Present Las Vegas, NV 89154-2040 Institute and School of Life Sciences, University, University Flagstaff, of Nevada-Las AZ Vegas, ABSTRACT and only one old forests are uncommon in the Southwest, Old-growth ponderosa pine (Pinusponderosa) in the ponderosa pine belt sur growth forest (the Gus Pearson Natural Area [GPNA]) has been researched in northern Arizona The purpose of this study was tomeasure soil characteris rounding the city of Flagstaff current and settlement in a tics, pre-Euro-American (1885) tree structure, and understory plant composition 6-ha remnant old-growth forest on volcanic, red cinder soils Soil bulk density was extremely low (0.21 in this forest because of high volumetric contents of cinders >2 mm diameter As a result, volumetric Mg/m3) were soil moisture, N contents and total low, with June gravimetric moisture organic C, (0-15 cm) averaging *? %' O O A ^ 20 ** 10 20 30 40 SO 70 60 A PRCW A PRSM 'xPRLT -PCX,! oPiFL SO X (t>) ^resettlement and structures live trees 1?SC^** ISST 100 i??? isla ?32 X1S82 1?*? * 0611 80 tros x >^ Xt7?7 X 172^ 1S2S 1612X ?1744 ?1S?? x ?S2S 37?1 ?72S %m& 60 1680 IBM t8**< X1&S2 m ?