Forest Litter and Humus Types of East Tennessee

Forest litter and humus types in East Tennessee, including the Great Smoky Mountains, have been the object of this study. The east Tennessee area is bordered on the east by the State Line Ridge in the Smoky Mountains and on the west by the Cumberland Mountains. The east Tennessee area is in the Ridge and Valley and Blue Ridge provinces as defined by Fenneman (1938). The Great Smoky Mountains, in the Blue Ridge province, are part of the Unaka Chain (King and Stupka 1950) and have relief of over a mile. The Ridge and Valley province is an intermountain belt, consisting of a series of parallel ridges and intervening valleys extending in a northeast-southwest direction and the relief is generally less than 800 feet. Accordingly east Tennessee is characterized by variety in its vegetation, climate and soils. Although forest litter and humus types are of primary interest in understanding the interlocking relationships of vegetation, climate and soils, their details have often been overlooked.