Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Southern Appalachian Forest Ecosystems

This hypertext encyclopedia contains a wealth of information on the ecology and management of southern Appalachian forest ecosystems. We have synthesized literature from thousands of sources to provide resource managers, land-owners, researchers, students, and the public at large easy access to scientific knowledge about the forests of the southern Appalachians.

Before learning about Southern Appalachian forest ecosystems, new users of this site might want to learn more about what an online encyclopedia consists of by checking out the Where to Begin page.

All the scientific knowledge in this encyclopedia has been organized into the following topic areas:

• Landscape: contains a biological, geological, climatological, hydrological, and soils description of the southern Appalachian landscape
• Resource Management: management of the many resources provided by the southern Appalachian region
• Ecology: ecological foundations to understand the management of resources
• Forest Health: insect, disease, nonnative invasive species, and air quality threats to forests of the region
• Social Science:economics, recreation, native American history, etc.