Technical Approach

Field experiments needed to develop regeneration protocols will be installed at both Fort Benning, Georgia, and at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. These sites represent distinct environmental conditions where LBP occupies historically LLP sites. Establishing the same experiment at two different sites will provide information needed to extrapolate findings across the range of DoD installations in the region. In each location, the experiment will be set up as a randomized split plot design replicated on blocks with canopy treatments as the main plot factor and cultural treatments as the split plot factor. Experimental response variables include the survival and growth of residual trees, seedlings, and planted native grasses; light; soil nutrients and moisture; foliar nutrients; and seedling water potential. Stand vulnerability and the individual tree mortality models will be based on existing inventory data and on data collected from a stratified sample of all upland LBP stands on Fort Benning. Standard ANOVA, regression, and non-parametric methods will be used for most analyses; dendrochronology methods coupled with logistic regression and time series analysis will be used to forecast tree mortality. The stand vulnerability model will be applied at Camp Lejeune to identify sites most vulnerable to pine decline, a condition not yet reported on the installation but present in the Atlantic coastal plain region.