Scientists & Staff
Joshua Hanson
Notes: This person is no longer an employee of the Northern Research Station.
National Research Highlights
Pennsylvania Regeneration Study Assesses Overstory and Understory Tree Species Communities
Year: 2014
In 2001, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Forest Service's Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) program launched the "Pennsylvania Regeneration Study" to gain a better understanding of understory conditions across Pennsylvania. The landscape-level study was incorporated into a subset of the existing FIA sample locations. At each selected plot, composition and abundance of established tree seedlings and associated non-tree vegetation were recorded. Forest Service scientists analyzed the 2001 to 2005 data to determine whether overstory and understory species composition was similar by forest type or ecoregion and to test various hypotheses about causes for dissimilarity.