Disturbance-mediated accelerated succession in two Michigan forest types

In N lower Michigan, logging accelerated sugar maple Acer saccharum dominance in a northern white cedar Thuja occidentalis community, and clearcutting and burning quickly converted certain sites dominated by mature jack pine Pinus banksiana to early-successional hardwoods, including Prunus, Populus and Quercus. In both forest types the succeeding hardwoods should continue to increase in the future at the expense of the pioneer conifer species. In the cedar example, sugar maple was also increasing in an undisturbed, old-growth stand, but at a much reduced rate than in the logged stand. Disturbance has been thought to set back succession to some earlier stage, but study sites and at least several other North American forest communities exhibited accelerated succession following a wide range of disturbances. -from Authors