Appalachian Ohio Forest Research Group

Welcome to the AOFRG webpage. The Appalachian Ohio Forest Research Group is a joint project of OSU Geography, OU Geography, and the U.S. Forest Service. This inter- disciplinary study aims to analyze the trajectory of forest growth in SE Ohio, and determine the factors that have allowed reforestation to occur in the region. Here, you'll be able to connect with project updates, working papers, our esteemed research team, and helpful links.

Our grant is titled, "Explaining Socioecological Resilience Following Collapse: Forest Recovery in Appalachian Ohio". This grant is a joint effort of OSU and OU. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's cross-cutting program, the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.

OSU National Science Foundation Award Abstract

OU/USFS National Science Foundation Award Abstract

Background

The 20th century witnessed the widespread net return of forests in sites across the world. A crucial science need is to complement understanding of forest loss with new attention to the socioecological drivers of forest recovery and sustainability. This is critical to predict the conditions for maintenance of second- and third-generation forests and to anticipate their emergence globally, both of which are urgently required to inform global climate models, climate change mitigation scenarios, and a suite of other environmental issues. We focus particular attention on the under-examined human and ecological couplings that give rise to specific forest forms and functions. We scrutinize the extent to which those linkages, and the forest emergent from them, lead to irreversible changes in socioecological systems. Exploring these questions requires a site in which forests have returned and where there is sufficient time depth to examine the underlying socioecological processes that give rise to them. Appalachian Ohio is an ideal such laboratory. A former extractive periphery devastated in the 19th century, a hundred years later its extensive forests have emerged in surprising ways.

Study Area

Project Goals

1. Compare forest composition between pre-settlement forests (ca. 1800) and contemporary forests.

2. Describe the social and ecological form and function of recovered forests by developing innovative methods for mapping the heterogeneous spatial and temporal patterns of socioecological change.

3. Explain the emergence of the forest over time by developing an integrated model to explore the processes through which specific types of forests return.

4. Use our model to predict how these socioecological systems will function in the future, and especially to identify what conditions are necessary to maintain these forests over time.

Please feel free to explore our team member bios, read through the AOFRG project proposal, check out our many project related links and publications, or contact us with project questions or comments.