The Vegetative Composition of a Beech-Maple Climax Forest in the Glaciated Plateau of Northeastern Ohio

Survey was made of a beech-maple forest by the quarter point method during August, 1968. The forest is located on a mesic, level upland of the glaciated Allegheny Plateau in eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in the Chagrin River drainage basin. Geologically the upland is underlain by Mississippian formations capped by a thin cover of till, in which soils of the Ellsworth soil catena—the Rittman and Wadsworth silt loams—are developed. The dominant plant species in this forest are American beech and sugar maple, which together comprise 68% of the trees recorded and have a total combined importance value of 62%. Red oak, red maple, and cucumbertree are important secondary dominants, but white ash and tuliptree are of little significance in the woodland composition. A greater overall abundance of secondary-associate mixed-mesophytic species than is normally found in such forests occurs. This composition supports the concept of a poly climax beechmaple association and is suggested to be a result of past selective lumbering and a variation in topography and soils. Although there is some evidence of past selective lumbering, the forest appears to be in an essentially undisturbed, virgin state. It has been partially destroyed as the forest is now part of a tract of land developed as a new secondary school campus. INTRODUCTION The survey presented here is part of a complete ecological survey of the proposed campus of the University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio, which was made in August, 1968. In addition to supplying data on another site of original Ohio vegetational composition to scientific literature, the survey was made to provide Manuscript received August 8, 1969. Present address: Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755. THE OHIO JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 71(3): 174, May, 1971 No. 3 BEECH-MAPLE FOREST IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO 175 data on the pre-construction ecology of the entire tract that could be used for comparative studies in the future -when the changes brought about by the operation of a school can be observed in the remaining undeveloped areas. This survey was made as an Extended Research Project of the 1968 Summer Science Project at University School (Schlesinger, 1968). The twenty acres of forest surveyed are in the center of the 173-acre University School tract located east of Ohio 91 between Shaker and Fairmount Boulevards. This tract lies twelve miles east of Cleveland and four miles northeast of Chagrin Falls, in the village of Hunting Valley, and is approximately at 41° 29' 15" north latitude and 81° 25' 30" west longitude (fig. 1). son) CENTBR. Rano 0.4 FIGURE 1. The location of the University School tract in Hunting Valley, Ohio, studied is the shaded portion of the tract. The forest The forest studied lies on the generally level eastern highlands of Cuyahoga County, one and one half miles west of the Chagrin River. These highlands are part of the glaciated Allegheny Plateau and occur at elevations of from 1050 to 1090 feet. The creeks and streams of the forest, their ravines, and the Chagrin River and its 800-foot-elevation valley are all of postglacial origin. The forest is cut approximately in half by one major, unnamed stream which drains the entire area and which flows southeast to join the Chagrin River at an elevation more than 250 feet below that of the upland. It has eroded a very steepsided, 50-70-foot-deep, cool ravine-like valley. The forest is also crossed by several other smaller, intermittant streams, all of which drain into the main creek. None of these other streams has formed such a deep ravine or changed the topography so significantly. The survey was confined to the level, upland areas on each side of the main ravine. These areas have a slope of between two and six percent and are covered with beech-maple climax forest. The area is underlain by Mississippian shales and sandstones which are buried by glacial till to an average depth of seven feet, except where exposed by erosion along the main ravine (Herron Testing Laboratories, 1968). Soils in the area of the forest are the Rittman and Wadsworth silt loams described by Duane Bosworth (personal communication, 1968) as light-colored, medium-textured soils in the Ellsworth soil catena formed from Wisconsin glacial till (Braun, 1950) on 176 WILLIAM H. SCHLESINGER Vol. 71 gently sloping land. The area would best be described as ranging from mesic to wet-mesic in character. The soils are moderately well drained, but have heavy clay subsoils that form a "hardpan" at a depth of approximately 20 inches below the surface which interferes with normal root development of deep-rooted plants and restricts favorable movement of air and water at this level. Climatic data for the area are not available. No weather station is present in the immediate vicinity, and, due to time limitations of the survey, no data could be collected during the study. Historically the forest appears to have been originally preserved from clear cutting by the presence of the large, deep ravine which crosses it. Until recently, the area was held in a large private estate which also insured its safety. Some selective cutting appears to have been conducted in the past in a few areas. The forest is now part of a tract of land being developed as the campus of a new independent secondary school. At the time of this survey, pre-construction clearing had already been begun in some areas of the full tract, including some disturbance in the forest studied. Prior to this clearing, forest with similar growth was continuous on the north, west, and south, while an open fallow field occurred on the east. Subsequent to this work, more of the forest surveyed was destroyed for construction. Inevitably there will also be drastic changes in the drainage and light penetration of remaining areas, as well as erosion in cleared areas. PROCEDURES The quarter point method of ecological survey of plant communities was employed in the study, as described by Cottam and Curtis (1956, 1962). Point number one was permanently placed at a site located 2200 feet west and 700 feet north of the southeastern corner point of the University School campus tract. Using compass and pacing, a 100-foot grid was laid out south of the main ravine, which consisted of 38 quarter points. Point 39 was then permanently marked at 1400 feet west and 1300 feet north of the school's southeastern property corner TABLE 1 Quarter Point Data