Climate change and forest disturbances are threatening the ability of forested mountain watersheds to provide the clean, reliable, and abundant fresh water necessary to support aquatic ecosystems and a growing human population. Here, we used 76 years of water yield, climate, and field plot vegetation measurements in six unmanaged, reference watersheds in the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, USA to determine wh...

2Over the past several decades, federal incentive programs have encouraged the restoration of bottomland forests throughout the West Gulf Coastal Plain (WGCP) and the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV). Programs such as the Conservation Reserve (CRP) and Wetlands Reserve (WRP) Programs have been marginally successful (Stanturf et al. 2001). Foresters and contractors often follow conventional tree planting procedures that...

The mixed oak–pine ecosystems in the southern Appalachians are in decline because of a combination of drought and southern pine-beetle infestation. A commonly applied prescription for restoration of these degraded sites has been to fell all vegetation, allow it to dry, and conduct a site-preparation burn. However, there is little information on the mid- and long-term influences of this prescription on nutrient cycling. The fel...