Patterns of foliar injury to red spruce on Whiteface Mountain, New York, during a high-injury winter

Abstract

Winter injury to red spruce (Picearubens Sarg.) after the winter of 1992–1993 was measured at an elevation of 1050 m at a site on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Approximately 21% of the 1992 foliage was injured. Damage increased with height in the canopy (P < 0.0001), and was highest on the southern aspect (P < 0.0001), followed by the western aspect, which sustained more damage than the northern and eastern aspects (P < 0.0001). Damage was highest on trees whose canopy was fertilized with nitrogen, intermediate on ground-fertilized trees, and lowest on untreated trees, but differences were not significant (P = 0.45) and were confounded with stand structure differences. The strong aspect and height patterns of damage confirm earlier work showing that solar radiation plays an important role in causing the freezing injury that leads to winter damage in red spruce.