Recreation
This forest ecosystem occurs as a complex of wetland and upland vegetation associated with medium to large rivers or streams where topography and alluvial processes have resulted in a well-developed floodplain. Common species include silver maple, eastern cottonwood, pin oak, red maple, black willow, sycamore, sweetgum, green ash, bur oak, American hornbeam, black walnut, American elm, boxelder, and black oak.
This forest ecosystem includes two matrix-forming oak-dominated systems that are only weakly differentiated and occupies more area than any other in the Central Appalachians. Common species include white oak, black oak, northern red oak, scarlet oak, red maple, pignut hickory, mockernut hickory, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, chestnut oak, sweet birch, American beech, black gum, tulip tree, and white ash.
This forest ecosystem includes major patch-forming forests and woodlands where soils are generally xeric, sandy, and have low water holding capacity. Common species include white oak, black oak, chestnut oak, mockernut hickory, pignut hickory, scarlet oak, shortleaf pine, pitch pine, Virginia pine, eastern white pine, Table Mountain pine, and scrub oak.
This forest ecosystem is mostly formed by small patches of three similar systems that occur on thinner circumneutral and calcareous soils over limestone or dolostone. Common species include eastern redcedar, chinkapin oak, eastern redbud, eastern hophornbeam, white oak, post oak, and shagbark hickory.
These ecosystems occur on gentle to steep slopes on soils that range from slightly acidic to very acidic with varying amounts of nutrients, depending on landscape position and parent material. These largely deciduous forests are sometimes mixed with hemlock. Common species include sugar maple, American basswood, American beech, white ash, black cherry, yellow birch, sweet birch, red maple, eastern hemlock, red spruce, and tulip tree.
Species diversity in the Central Appalachians has been linked to geophysical diversity of the area. With increasing topographic and landform complexity comes a greater number of landscape characteristics and microhabitats that buffer against climate changes. Many areas across West Virginia and Maryland, including the Appalachian range, have a high diversity of landscape characteristics, such as geophysical setting, landscape complexity, and connectivity, that contribute to the high species diversity.
Disturbances such as drought, flooding, wildfire, and insect outbreaks have the potential to increase in the Central Appalachians. Several ecosystems such as the Appalachian (hemlock)-northern hardwoods and north-central interior beech-maple forest are adapted to frequent gap-phase disturbances, but experience stand-replacing events on the scale of hundreds or thousands of years. Therefore, these systems may be less tolerant of more frequent stand-level disturbances, such as drought or fire. Mesic ecosystems can create conditions that could buffer against fire and drought to some extent.
Communities that require specific hydrologic regimes, unique soils or geology, or narrow elevation ranges may not be able to shift across the landscape, even if conditions are favorable. For example, high-elevation spruce-fir ecosystems are found exclusively in the highest elevations of the Allegheny Mountains, as remnant populations surviving in the coolest and wettest habitats in the region.
Habitat fragmentation can hinder the ability of tree species to migrate to more suitable habitat on the landscape, especially if the surrounding area is nonforested. Modeling results indicate that mean centers of suitable habitat for tree species will migrate between 60 and 350 miles by the year 2100 under a high emissions scenario and between 30 and 250 miles under milder climate change scenarios. Based on data gathered for seedling distributions, it has been estimated that many northern tree species could possibly migrate northward at a rate of 100 miles per century.
In general, species-rich ecosystems have exhibited greater resilience to extreme environmental conditions and greater potential to recover from disturbance than less diverse ecosystems. This makes less diverse ecosystems inherently more susceptible to future changes and stressors. Conversely, ecosystems that have low species diversity or low functional diversity (where multiple species occupy the same niche) may be less resilient to climate change or its associated stressors.
