Treefall in a mixed oak-pine coastal plain forest: immediate and historical causation

In a local convective storm, 85 trees were damaged in an 18.3 ha stand in the Pine Barrens region of southern New Jersey, USA. To determine what factors place individual trees at risk, damaged trees were measured and graded for degree of fire scarring and fungal rotting. Similar measurements were made on 280 undamaged individuals. Ages were determined in a subsample by coring. Only two of the seven species present suffered wind damage (Quercus prinus and Q. velutina). Damaged trees were moved more severely rotted than undamaged individual both within and among species. Presence of fungal rot was strongly linked to scarring of the trunk by fire, which in turn was determined by date of recruitment relative to historical episodes of fire. Risk was not influenced by either tree size, proximity to existing gaps, taper of the stem, or interspecific differences in wood strength. Vulnerability to wind damage in this sand was determined by a summation of disturbance effects influencing tree recruitment and health over the previous 90 yr.