Coverage of Appalachian Encyclopedia
The objective of the Encyclopedia of Southern Appalachian Forest Ecosystems project is to synthesize the entire available scientific knowledge-base for this region. However, the current version falls somewhat short of this goal. What Is Covered?
The Landscape
Resource Management
Forest Health Management
Social Science
- Still under development
There are also a number of topics at various levels of the organization that have not been covered at all or where the coverage is rather weak so far.
Socio-economic aspects: no coverage so far but work is underway to fill this gap.
Timber Resource, Forest Types covered: the mixed oak and mesophytic hardwood (yellow poplar) dominated forests have been covered. These two forest types make up 16.5 of the total 26 million acres of forest land in the southern Appalachian region, or about 63%. The encyclopedia provides no coverage for the remaining 37% of the forest types composed of northern hardwood, bottomland hardwood, white pine-hemlock, spruce-fir, southern yellow pine, white pine-hemlock-hardwood, and mixed pine-hardwood forests.
Vegetation Simulation: rather weakly covered with emphasis only on the available software tools for use in the region. The huge body of knowledge which provides background information for these models has not been covered.
Decision Making in Forest Management: a very broad overview has been presented with very little of the complexities of the forest planning process covered in sufficient depth to convey what we know and what is currently in use. Work is underway to upgrade this section.
Forest Utilization: no coverage but work is in progress.
Recreation: no coverage but work is in progress.
Ecology: this entire section, consisting of disturbance and succession, biogeochemical cycling, aquatic ecology, and species ecology, will soon be added. The content is being finalized.
