Thursday, 4pm Hutch 316

This week we will be talking about the effects of land-use history and the environment on plant distributions. For example, eastern forests were largely cut to make way for agriculture throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries. With the abandonment of eastern agricultural lands in the 20^th century, forests have been regenerating and expanding from forest remnants on land deemed poor for agriculture. More recently, however, urban sprawl and renewed timber cutting has mostly halted the spread of eastern forests.

Flinn, K.M., M. Vellend, and P.L. Marks. 2005. Environmental causes and consequences of forest clearance and agricultural abandonment in central New York, USA. Journal of Biogeography 32:439-452. [doi link]

Drummond, M.A., and T.R. Loveland. 2010. Land-use pressure and a transition to forest-cover loss in the eastern United States. BioScience 60:286-298. [doi link]

a) UR Woodlands 1930

b) UR Woodlands 1961

c) UR Woodlands 1988

d) UR Woodlands 2005