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Major stands of southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest. The southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest consists of several stands covering a combined area of between 60,000 and 70,000 acres (24,000 and 28,000 ha), [2] [6] although less conservative estimates have placed the forest's coverage at around 90,000 acres (36,000 ha). [7]
Spruce–fir forests can be found in cold regions at high latitudes or high altitudes throughout the Northern Hemisphere. [1] This includes both areas throughout the high latitude boreal forest of Canada and Russia, [2] [3] as well as mountain ranges at lower latitudes, such as the Rocky Mountains in North America, the Tian Shan in Asia, and the Carpathian Mountains in Europe.
Roan Mountain is a 6,277 ft (1,913 m) [1] mountain straddling the North Carolina/Tennessee border in the Unaka Range of the Southern Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United States. The range's highpoint, Roan is clad in a dense stand of Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest and includes the world's largest natural rhododendron ...
Forest of red spruce and Fraser fir on the slopes of Mount Rogers. Mount Rogers is the northernmost habitat of the high-altitude Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests, which are found in only five other locations in the United States: the Great Smoky Mountains, the Black Mountains, the Great Balsam Mountains, Grandfather Mountain, and Roan Mountain. [6]
[12] [13] [42] Below the spruce-fir forest, at around 1,200 meters (3,900 ft), forest composition shifts in favor of deciduous trees such as American beech, maple, birch, and oak. [13] American rhododendron is the dominant understory shrub throughout the deciduous layer but is only occasionally present in spruce-fir forests.
It is often found in pure stands or forests mixed with eastern white pine, balsam fir, or black spruce. Along with Fraser fir, red spruce is one of two primary tree types in the southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, a distinct ecosystem found only in the highest elevations of the southern Appalachian Mountains. [13] Its habitat is moist but ...
The mountain's summit is coated in a dense stand of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, which consists primarily of two evergreen species—the red spruce and the Fraser fir. Most of the mature Fraser firs, however, were killed off by the non-native Balsam woolly adelgid in the latter half of the 20th century.
The Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest—also called the "boreal" or "Canadian" forest—is a relict of the ice ages, when mean annual temperatures in the Smokies were too cold to support a hardwood forest. While the rise in temperatures between 12,500 and 6,000 years ago allowed the hardwoods to return, the spruce-fir forest has managed ...