On the Ecology of Mountainous Forests in a Changing Climate: A ...

144 Chapter 5
the 72 species used e.g. by Solomon (1986). Second, the monthly climatic data and the
field capacity parameters at the 21 locations are needed.
5.4.1 Tree species and climatic data of eastern North America
The derivation of the FORCLIM parameters for the 72 eastern North American species
was based on those of FORENA (Solomon 1986) and LINKAGES (Pastor & Post 1985).
Four of the 14 FORCLIM parameters per species were adopted directly from the FORENA
data, seven of them had to be recalculated based on the FORENA parameters, and three
could be derived using the species descriptors published by Pastor & Post (1985)
(Tab. 5.5). A detailed description of the transformation rules and a summary of all the
FORCLIM species parameters are listed in Appendix VI.
The climatic data for all 21 sites/regions in eastern North America that were used by
Solomon (1986) were provided by Allen M. Solomon (pers. comm.). The following
subset of this climatic data was used for simulating forest succession along a climate gradient
in eastern North America (cf. Solomon 1986, p. 570):
• Tundra/woodland-northern boreal forest: Churchill, Manitoba; Shefferville,
Quebec; Armstrong, Ontario
• Southern boreal forest: West Upper Division, Michigan
• Northern deciduous forest: Central Lower Division, Michigan
• Western deciduous forest: West Central Division, Ohio; West Ozarks Division,
Missouri; South Central Division, Arkansas
• Eastern deciduous forest: Cumberland Plateau Division, Tennessee; South
Central Division, Georgia.
These 10 locations cover a latitudinal gradient from 58 °N to 31 °N, with annual mean
temperatures ranging from -7.3 °C (Churchill) to 19.6 °C (Georgia), and annual precipitation
sums from 396 mm/year (Churchill) to 1378 mm/year (Tennessee). The climatic
data of the locations are listed in Appendix VII.