Acer rubrum: Descending towards forest dominance

Acer rubrum, more commonly known as the red maple, is a hardwood, late successional species of tree commonly planted for its deciduous nature and vibrant coloring of its leaves in the beginning of autumn (Abrams, 1998). The species is very tolerant of varying light and soil moisture levels and often dominates sub and mid-canopy levels of hardwood forests (Missouri Botanical Gardens). It was hypothesized that as the I moved from an upland location to a lowland location near a wetland that the A. rubrum trees would be more productive and have a greater above ground biomass. This was not supported by the data collected and a T-test comparing average percent slope and above ground biomass (p = 0.0002949) indicated that these results were significant. An inverse relationship between the two variables suggested that A. rubrum was more productive in drier, upland regions compared to the moist soils closer to the wetland. These results, while significant, did not have the best representation of the sample due to the varying number of trees in each transect region.