BG beech gap fores 

 CF cove forest 

 F Fraser fir forest 



I and valley of the Great Smoky Mountains, looking east: (Whittaker 1956). 



GB grassy bald 



H hemlock forest 

 HB heath bald 

 OCF oak (chestnut) forest 



OCH oak (chestnut) heath ROC red oak (chestnut) forest 



OH oak-hickory forest S spruce forest 



P pine forest and SF spruce-fir forest 



pine heath WOC white oak (chestnut) fores 



ZONATION 



Climate varies with altitude in kind as it 

 does with latitude: most notably, air temperature 

 varies inversely with altitude. Because of this, there 

 are corollary changes in vegetation such that con- 

 spicuous conation is apparent. Zonation of vegeta- 

 tion and differences in climate profoundly afTect ani- 

 mal distributions. 



In the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Ten- 

 nessee, there are two zones, differentiated essentially 

 by temperature. Each is characterized by a circum- 

 ferentially heterogeneous vegetation different from 

 that of the other. On north slopes of the mountains 

 the demarcation between them is approximately the 

 1400 m (4500 ft) elevation. The lower zone is 

 mostly deciduous forest, grading laterally from moist 

 mixed mesophytic or cove forest on the north slopes 

 through oak-hickory and oak (chestnut) to southern 

 pine forest and grassy balds on the warm, dry, south 

 slopes ( Fig. 22-2 ) . The vegetation of the upper zone 

 also changes, north to south, as moisture conditions 

 change : gray beech forest on the north and in the 

 moist mountain gaps gives way to spruce-fir forest, 

 which in turn changes into heath balds on the ex- 

 posed southern slopes (Whittaker 1952, 1956). 



Contrastingly, each of the several zones of New 

 York's Catskill Mountains is characterized by a cir- 

 cumferentially homogeneous vegetation different 

 from that of the other zones. Below 230 m (750 ft) 

 deciduous forest prevails; between 230 m and 610 m 

 (2000 ft) there is an ecotone of beech-maple-hem- 

 lock : then comes a zone where hemlock drops out and 

 the forest is principally gray beech, sugar maple, and 



yellow birch. Above 980 m and extending to 1280 m 

 (3200 to 4200 ft), the deciduous forest is replaced by 

 spruce-fir coniferous forest (Kendeigh 1946). 



ANIMAL COMMUNITIES 



North American deciduous 

 forest biociation 



This biociation occurs in the climax and late 

 serai stages throughout the deciduous forest proper. 

 It extends into the pine-hemlock-hardwoods ecotone, 

 although locally within the ecotone there is rather 

 sharp segregation of many animal species according as 

 they are frequenters of deciduous or coniferous forest 

 (Kendeigh 1946, 1948). The community is repre- 

 sented as a biocies in the aspen-birch serai stage of 

 the boreal forest. The biociation penetrates well into 

 the magnolia-oak association in the Gulf states, but 

 becomes progressively more impoverished southward 

 as species drop out. To the West, the community 

 occurs in the wider strips of forest along the streams, 

 but as the forest diminishes in density westward, the 

 forest-edge biociation replaces the forest biociation. 

 Mammal species that occur or formerly occurred 

 through the deciduous forest biociation include: 



Eastern mole 

 Mountain lion 

 Bobcat 

 Gray fox 

 Black bear 

 Gray squirrel 



Southern flying squirrel 

 Eastern chipmtmk 

 Raccoon 

 Oppossum 

 Short-tailed shrew 

 White-footed mouse 



Temperate deciduous forest biome 295 



