Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands

By Mark S. Brooks ¹

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Ecoregion Description

The Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregion is located in south-central New York and north-central Pennsylvania and covers approximately 29,900 km² (11,550 mi²) (fig. 1).  The ecoregion is defined as a “transitional ecoregion between the less irregular, more agricultural and urbanized ecoregions to the north and west and the more mountainous and forested, less populated ecoregions to the south and east” (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2002).  The landscape is rural with rolling hills and fertile stream valleys.  Forest and agriculture are the dominant land covers in the ecoregion (fig. 2).  The forest consists of northern hardwoods that include sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), white ash (Fraxinus americana), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), black cherry (Prunus avium), and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) (Smallidge, 1997).  Dairy and cattle farming, along with the production of corn, wheat, and hay, are the major agricultural activities in this ecoregion (Fick and Cox, 1995) (fig. 3).  The climate is temperate with an average January temperature of –6.1^oC (21^oF) and an average July temperature of 20.7^oC (69^oF), with more than 940 mm (37 in) of precipitation annually (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2002).

 

Contemporary Land Cover Change from 1973 to 2000

 

Compared to other ecoregions of the Eastern United States (fig. 4), the overall estimated change between 1973 and 2000 for the Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands was quite low, just 2.5 percent (718 km² or 227 mi²).  An estimated 1.8 percent (538 km² or 207 mi²) of total land area changed land cover once, and the area undergoing multiple changes was estimated at just 0.7 percent (209 km² or 80 mi²) (table 1).

The estimated change per time period varied modestly during the study period (fig. 5).  The first two time intervals, 1972 to 1980 and 1980 to 1986, experienced a change of 0.7 percent.  The third time interval, 1986 to 1992, had the only increase in change from 0.7 percent to 1.0 percent.  Finally, in the last interval, 1992 to 2000, the total change was 0.8 percent.  The margin of error at the 85-percent confidence level was very low during all time periods.  The average annual rate of change for all time intervals was 0.1 percent, with the exception of the 1986 to 1992 time interval, which had a rate of change of 0.2 percent (table 2). 

Land cover in the Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregion was extremely stable throughout the 1973 to 2000 study period.  The dominant land covers were forest with 60.1 percent of the land area in 2000, agriculture with 33.9 percent, and developed lands with 3.3 percent of the ecoregion (table 3).

Net change for all land covers, with the exception of agriculture, was modest during the 1973 to 2000 study period.  Agriculture saw the largest net change with a –0.9 percent change during the study period.  Land covers that gained at the expense of agriculture included developed lands with an increase of 0.5 percent and grassland/shrubland with 0.3 percent (fig. 6).

The top two land cover conversions indicate that the ecoregion experienced a decline in agricultural lands during the study period.  An estimated 161 km² (62 mi²) of agricultural lands converted to forest, and 160 km² (62 mi²) were converted to grassland/shrubland.  The third leading conversion was 136 km² (53 mi²) from grassland/shrubland to forest.  The second and third leading conversions were the result of the natural progression of abandoned agricultural lands reverting back to forest.  Leading factors that contribute to the abandonment of agricultural lands are topography, road access, poor drainage, and poor soil (Flinn, Vellend, and Marks, 2005).  The fourth and fifth leading conversions consisted of 124 km² (48 mi²) of forest being cleared for farmland and 85 km² (33 mi²) of forest becoming mechanically disturbed because of timber harvesting (table 4).

The Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregion was stable throughout the 1973 to 2000 study period.  The loss of agricultural lands was the most significant land cover change.  Farmlands declined in each time interval.  The 1986 to 1992 time interval experienced the greatest amount of agricultural land being abandoned, with an estimated 148 km² (57 mi²) being converted to forest, grassland/shrubland, or developed land (table 4 and fig. 7).

 

References

 

Fick, Gary W., and Cox, William J., 1995, The agronomy of dairy farming in New York state: Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University, Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences, SCAS Teaching Series No. T95-1, 8 p.

 

Flinn, Kathryn M., Vellend, Mark, and Marks, P.L., 2005, Environmental causes and consequences of forest clearance and agricultural abandonment in central New York, USA: Journal of Biogeography, v. 32, p. 439–452.

 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2002, Monthly station normals of temperature, precipitation, and heating and cooling degree days 1971–2000 for New York [revised]: NOAA, available online at http://hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim81/NYnorm.pdf.

 

Smallidge, Peter, 1997, New York’s forest—then and now: Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University, New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Natural Resources.

 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2002, Primary distinguishing characteristics of Level III ecoregions of the continental United States [draft]: EPA, available online at ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/us/useco_desc.doc.

 

 

 

 

Table 1.  Estimated overall spatial land cover change between 1973 and 2000

 

	Overall	Number of changes
	spatial change	1	2	3	4
Percent of ecoregion	2.5	1.8	0.6	0.1	0.0

 

 

 

Table 2.  Estimated change and average annual change (normalized to account for varying time intervals) for each time interval

 

	Period
	1973–1980	1980–1986	1986–1992	1992–2000
Total change (% of ecoregion)	0.7%	0.7%	1.0%	0.8%
Margin of error (85% confidence level)	+/–0.3%	+/–0.2%	+/–0.3%	+/–0.3%
Average annual rate of change (%/year)	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%

 

 

 

Table 3.  Estimated percent of land area of individual land cover classes between 1973 and 2000 and calculated estimated net change per time interval

 

	1973		1980		1986		1992		2000		Net change 1973–2000
Land-use/land-cover class	km²	%	km²	%	km²	%	km²	%	km²	%	km²	%
Water	264	0.9	267	0.9	269	0.9	271	0.9	273	0.9	9	0.0
Developed	829	2.8	866	2.9	885	3.0	932	3.1	976	3.3	146	0.5
Mechanically disturbed	14	0.0	6	0.0	23	0.1	27	0.1	39	0.1	24	0.1
Mining	29	0.1	34	0.1	40	0.1	44	0.1	47	0.2	18	0.1
Naturally barren	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	0.0	1	0.0	1	0.0
Forest	17,973	60.1	17,954	60.0	17,958	60.0	17,958	60.0	17,967	60.1	–6	0.0
Grassland/Shrubland	17	0.1	56	0.2	51	0.2	116	0.4	101	0.3	84	0.3
Agriculture	10,429	34.9	10,373	34.7	10,331	34.5	10,208	34.1	10,154	33.9	–275	–0.9
Wetland	365	1.2	364	1.2	363	1.2	362	1.2	361	1.2	–3	0.0
Non-mechanically disturbed	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0

 

 

Table 4.  Leading land cover conversions for each of the four time intervals and for the entire study period

 

			Area changed	% of all
Period	From class	To class	(km2)	changes
1973–1980	Agriculture	Forest	59	27
	Forest	Agriculture	49	23
	Agriculture	Grassland/Shrubland	36	17
	Forest	Developed	24	11
	Agriculture	Developed	13	6
	Mechanically disturbed	Agriculture	7	3
	Forest	Mechanically disturbed	5	2
	Other classes	Other classes	22	10
			215	100
1980–1986	Grassland/Shrubland	Forest	41	21
	Agriculture	Grassland/Shrubland	34	17
	Forest	Agriculture	33	17
	Agriculture	Forest	32	16
	Forest	Mechanically disturbed	20	10
	Forest	Developed	11	6
	Agriculture	Developed	6	3
	Other classes	Other classes	19	10
			196	100
1986–1992	Agriculture	Grassland/Shrubland	67	23
	Agriculture	Forest	52	18
	Agriculture	Developed	29	10
	Grassland/Shrubland	Forest	29	10
	Forest	Agriculture	27	9
	Forest	Mechanically disturbed	26	9
	Mechanically disturbed	Grassland/Shrubland	16	5
	Other classes	Other classes	48	16
			294	100
1992–2000	Grassland/Shrubland	Forest	62	26
	Forest	Mechanically disturbed	34	14
	Agriculture	Grassland/Shrubland	24	10
	Agriculture	Developed	22	9
	Mechanically disturbed	Grassland/Shrubland	21	9
	Forest	Developed	19	8
	Agriculture	Forest	17	7
	Other classes	Other classes	39	16
			238	100
Overall:
1973–2000	Agriculture	Grassland/Shrubland	161	17
	Agriculture	Forest	160	17
	Grassland/Shrubland	Forest	136	14
	Forest	Agriculture	124	13
	Forest	Mechanically disturbed	85	9
	Agriculture	Developed	71	8
	Forest	Developed	69	7
	Other classes	Other classes	137	14
			943	100

 

 

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Figure 1.  Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregion showing the location of the sample blocks used in the study.

 

 

 

Figure 2.  Typical farm in the Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregion.

 

 

 

Figure 3.  Cattle grazing in open pasture.

 

 

 

Figure 4.  The overall spatial change in all Eastern U.S. ecoregions.  Each bar chart shows the proportion of the ecoregion that experienced change on 1, 2, 3, or 4 dates.

 

 

 

Figure 5.  Estimates of land cover change per time interval normalized to annual rates of change.

 

 

 

 

Figure 6.  Net change of land cover categories per time period.

 

 

 

Figure 7.  Abandoned pastures, such as the one shown above, are a common type of land cover change in the Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands ecoregion.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure .  Sediment filled Cattaraugus River after a heavy rain.

 

 

 

 

Figure .  Effects of declining business activity in Cattaraugus, NY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure .  Wheat field with wheat shocks.