Geology
When first exposed to air, this rock has a smooth, greenish luster, but it weathers quickly into orangish soil. Soils formed by these rocks are rich in all things a plant doesn't need: iron, nickel, magnesium, chromium. aka barrens
What is serpentine?
"Walking through the woods was like hiking on marbles, so thickly had the oaks broadcast their acorns this year." This phenomenon makes the most of a tree's reproductive potential.
What is masting?
Produced by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides, it is an especially potent problem at high elevations.
What is acid fog/rain?
This bird suffered declines during the timber rush of the nineteenth century. They now enjoy somewhat of a boom, nesting on the sides of active strip mines and quarries.
What is the raven?
William Bartram traveled the southern Appalachians following the course of the Nantahala River named by this tribe for its deep gorge lit only by the noon day sun.
What is the Cherokee?
The remains of the Alleghenian Orogeny's prodigious energy can be seen as swirled layers of sandstone in these man-made areas.
What are interstate road cuts
"Throughout the central and southern Appalachians, you can find hemlocks that look as though they have been lightly sprayed with the fake snow people use at the holidays, a chunky white flecking all over the lower branches and twigs."
What is hemlock woolly adelgid?
"All through the previous week, the leaves had deepened and intensified, as the last vestiges of green were banished and the warmest tones came through, golden beneath an autumn sky of gentian blue." This pigment produces the most vivid oranges and reds of fall.
What is anthocyanin?
Oak saplings leaves are larger, with less pronounced indentations than a mature specimen. These characteristics create more surface area to capture this in the deep woods.
What is sunlight?
Using temperature gradients as a foundation, biologist C. Hart Merriam developed the first comprehensive classification of the continent's natural communities. "The Appalachians ran almost the whole gamut, from Arctic and Hudsonian to Carolinian."
What are life zones?
Like many alpine plants, holarctic species like the Melissa arctic butterfly moved north and up mountain slopes following glacier retreat. Melissa arctic is found on what New Hampshire Mountain?
What is Mount Washington?
The diversity curve, in which the number of species increases the nearer one gets to the equator, is true for insects, spiders, frogs, snakes, birds and bats, but not for these small wet-skinned creatures found in the cove forests of the southern Appalachians.
What are salamanders? 34 species found there!
Dr. Gary Alt, a Pennsylvania bear specialist prefers the term "winter sleep" since bears do not drop into this extraordinarily deep, deathlike state characterized by woodchucks, bats or jumping mice.
What is hibernation?
Spring peepers must quickly draw the notice of females in order to mate, while not drawing the attention of predators. They solve this problem by thousands calling at once during this time.
What is nighttime?
By the beginning of the twentieth century, nearly three-fourths of this state's pine forests had gone to the mills, an operation that devastated not only the land, but the water also.
What is Maine?