Pre-European Settlement Forest Communities of the Talladega Mountains, Alabama

The pre-European-settlement forests of the Talladega Mountains in eastern Alabama were analyzed using the 1832 U.S. General Land Office Survey records. The surveyors identified and marked the positions of trees at each township section and quarter-section corner. An examination of the relative densities of tree species was used to reconstruct the composition of forest communities on different topographic sites. The results indicate a pattern of gradation from species-rich hardwood forests found in shaded bottomland sites to species-poor pine forests occurring on ridgetops. The ridgetops have shallow, coarse soils with poor moisture-holding capacity. In contrast, the bottomland sites have much deeper soils that generally have a higher moisture-holding capacity. The differences between soil and litter moisture between these sites probably led to differences in the frequency of fire, which was a major factor controlling forest-stand development and community composition.