Catastrophes and pure stands of southern shortleaf pine (1935)Turner, L. M. (1935). Catastrophes and pure stands of southern shortleaf pine. Ecology, 16(2), 213-215. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1932427?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents It is known among southern foresters and lumbermen that purity of com- position and uniformity of age in pine forests are the usual indicators of an "old field" stand, or the consequence of some catastrophe that wholly annihilated the previous plant cover. This is to say, a denuded area which is edaphically favorable, and which has seed-trees near, is soon seeded to pine and within the span of a few years a plant cover develops which for the most part resists further invasion of both hardwoods and members of its own spe- cies. From the foregoing data the natural inference is that some catastrophe destroyed practically all the forest in areas designated A, B, and C near the years 1857, 1811, and 1770 respectively. As enumerated above, certain seed- lings and some older trees escaped. There followed a certain period in which the areas were intensively reoccupied by a growth of pine, followed in turn by a longer period during which a greatly diminished number of trees came in at irregular intervals. Hence the present stand is composed of three hypotheti- cal classes, (1) older trees of the original stand and (2) seedlings that sur- vived, and (3) reproduction following the disaster http://www.jstor.org/stable/1932427?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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