Yes, I was sick of writing.

My specialty being forest ecology, spring in the Northern Hardwoods is always a fascinating time, as the blossoms in the understory appear, grabbing the sun before the sun is stolen by the leaves in the canopy. I apologize for the shots as the lighting was difficult...

A Trillium

A Wild Ginger Flower

And a Bloodroot Blossom

This area had a fairly rich understory. I saw one earlier in the day that had obviously been hit hard by Lumbricis terrestris, the invasive nightcrawler. Notice the complete lack of understory and bare soil.

With a cohort of worm species and heavy deer browsing, the understory is dominated by sedge and a few survivors. Notice the lack of seedlings...

As the canopy trees die off, there is nothing to replace them. The question becomes, what will? What is the extinction deficit for this location? Will it simply be colonized by invasive species and the biomass will be essentially equivalent?