Contents

Characteristics of Eocene Forests

Research at this site has been primarily of a taxonomic and systematic nature. Monographs of the evolutionary and biogeographic history of Larix, Picea, and Pseudolarix have been the focus thusfar (LePage and Basinger 1991a, 1991b, 1995a, 1995b; LePage 1993). The abundant undescribed taxa continue to be a focus of further research. Stand characteristics such as tree height, density, basal area, and spatial relationships have been addressed in preliminary fashion (Basinger 1991; Francis 1991; Greenwood and Basinger 1993, 1994; Basinger et al. 1994; Kumagai et al. 1995; Nobori et al. 1997).

Francis (1991) estimated the density of trees to be 484 and 325 trees/ha, with organic matter productivity estimated to be ca. 1200/gm/m²/yr, roughly comparable to the productivity of living temperate, deciduous forests. In a later study Basinger et al. (1994) excavated buried stumps and estimated the tree density to be more than twice as high (1,100 trees/ha) and a stem volume of 946.1 m³/ha. This is comparable to that of temperate old-growth forests.