9707664 Urban Much of the current uncertainty regarding the nature and mechanisms of forest succession is a consequence of the paucity of long-term data sets, particularly those dealing with patterns of establishment, growth, and mortality of individual plants. The forests of the North Carolina Piedmont have long been viewed as a model system for the study of secondary succession, in part because of the availability of long-term records of forest development. Among the key issues that remain to be resolved are the processes that influence community reorganization during the transition from even-aged to all-aged stands and the role of large, infrequent disturbances. This project will continue measurements of a rich assemblage of long-term research plots in and near the Duke Forest and thereby enhance the value of this site as a model system for the study of succession. In September 1996, many of the long-term plots were impacted to various degrees by Hurricane Fran which provides a new direction and opportunity for this project. Major disturbances like hurricanes are known to play an important role in forest dynamics, but rarely do such events occur on sites with a sufficient long-term history of research to allow assessment of the changes in ecological processes induced by the disturbance event. A second focus of tis study will be the documentation and archiving of the Duke Forest data, including standard metadata, for distribution to current and future researchers. Ultimately, these data will be freely accessible to investigators via standard network protocols.
