Western North Carolina chronosequence stands:
The ~85-year-old (NC_W 85yo) (35° 3’ 33.12”, -83° 25’ 39”) and ~35-year-old (NC_W 35yo) (35° 3’ 55.22”, -83° 26’ 17.54”) stands in the western NC chronosequence were located in the Coweeta Basin, at the USDA Forest Service Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. The site is characterized as a mesic forest with 1800 mm of mean annual precipitation and 13 ⁰C mean annual temperature (Oishi et al. , 2018). Mean canopy height was 17 m and 35 m in NC_W 35yo and NC_W 85yo, respectively. Soils were fine-loamy with a variable depth of approximately 35 to >90 cm. The NC_W 85yo was a mature, secondary forest dominated by L. tulipifera, Q. alba, Acer rubrumL., Betula lenta L., and dense Rhododendron maximum L. understory. The NC_W 35yo stand had similar species composition, but was clearcut in 1976-1977 (Swank & Webster, 2014). The ~15-year-old NC stand (NC 15yo) (35° 10’ 47.71”, -83° 29’ 44.98”) was a selectively harvested stand located nearby (<20 km) in the Nantahala National Forest with similar species composition. Mean canopy height in NC_W 15yo was 4.5 m.