Historical Variation in Fire, Oak Recruitment, and Post-Logging Accelerated Succession in Central Pennsylvania

Abrams, Marc D.; Nowacki, Gregory J.

doi:10.2307/2996916

Cited by 185 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In southwestern Virginia, Q rubra represented 69% importance in forests where C dentata formerly comprised up to 85% of the canopy (Stephenson, 1986 (Braun, 1950 Interestingly, the increase in P strobus was followed by a wave of Q rubra and Q velutina recruitment, suggesting possible facilitation of these red oaks by P strobus (cf Crow, 1988;Abrams, 1992 (fig 4; Abrams, 1986). In the Lake States and mid-Atlantic regions, Prunus serotina has potential in this regard (Reich et al, 1990; Abrams and Nowacki, 1992). In the mid-Atlantic region, south of A saccharum's range, Nyssa sylvatica may be a future overstory dominant in current oak forests (Ross et al, 1982;Farrell and Ware, 1991;Orwig and Abrams, 1994 (table IV).…”

Section: Maple-beech-basswoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution, historical development and ecophysiological attributes of oak species in the eastern United States

Abrams

1996

Ann. For. Sci.

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary — Approximately 30 Quercus (oak) species occur in the eastern United States, of which Q alba, Q rubra, Q velutina, Q coccinea, Q stellata and Q prinus are among the most dominant. Quercus distribution greatly increased at the beginning of the Holocene epoch (10 000 years BP), but has exhibited major changes since European settlement in the 18th and 19th centuries. For example, large-scale increases in Quercus species have occurred as a result of fire exclusion in the central tallgrass prairie and savanna regions. In the northern conifer and hardwood forests of New England and the Lake States region, Q rubra exhibited a dramatic increase following early logging and fire. Quercus species have also increased in the mid-Atlantic region from land-clearing, the charcoal iron industry and the eradication of Castanea dentata following European settlement. Studies of the dendroecology and successional dynamics of several old-growth forests indicate that prior to European settlement Quercus grew and regenerated in uneven-aged conditions. At times oak growth was very slow (< 1.0 mm/year) for long periods, which is usually characteristic of highly shade-tolerant species. Quercus

show abstract

Section: Maple-beech-basswoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution, historical development and ecophysiological attributes of oak species in the eastern United States

Abrams

1996

Ann. For. Sci.

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Trees of early-successional fire-adapted species may live for several decades while late-successional species slowly replace them, so that the stand slowly approaches the response surface-a process represented by the solid upward-pointing arrow in Figure 3A. A sudden jump from dominance by earlysuccesisonal to late-successional species (upward dotted arrow in Figure 3A), known as disturbancemediated accelerated succession, can also occur when heavy canopy windthrow or logging releases advanced regeneration (Abrams and Scott 1989;Abrams and Nowacki 1992).…”

Section: Structure Of the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies of stability of these forests after disturbance have been reported in the literature. In summary, they show that high-severity disturbances, including natural fire in blowdown slash and clear-cutting followed by slash burning or scarification of the soil, lead to conversion of northern hardwoods-hemlock to aspen (Populus tremuloides) and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) (Stoeckeler 1948;Graham and others 1963;Fralish 1972;Frelich and Lorimer 1991); that moderate-severity disturbances including surface fire, heavy canopy windthrow, and canopy clear-cut with minimal understory disturbance can maintain the predisturbance composition-either hemlockhardwood or aspen-paper birch (Zon and Scholz 1929;Shirley 1931Shirley , 1932Zehngraff 1949;Erye and Zillgitt 1953;Hubbard 1972;Frelich and Lorimer 1991)-and that low-severity to moderate-severity disturbances including selection cutting, spot fire, and blowdown allow forests to remain as hemlockhardwood or cause disturbance-mediated accelerated succession from aspen-birch to northern hardwood-hemlock (Eyre and Zillgitt 1953;Heinselman 1954;Tubbs 1977;Frelich and Lorimer 1991;Abrams and Nowacki 1992;Frelich and Graumlich 1994). Hix and Barnes (1984) report a major fluctuation in the hemlock to sugar maple ratio after clear-cut logging, but their study area is still dominated by these species.…”

Section: The Conceptual Model and Dynamics Of Three Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minireviews: Neighborhood Effects, Disturbance Severity, and Community Stability in Forests

1999

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A theoretical framework and conceptual model for temporal stability of forest tree-species composition was developed based on a synthesis of existing studies. The model pertains primarily to time periods of several tree lifetimes (several hundred to a few thousand years) at the neighborhood and stand spatial scales (0.01-10 ha), although a few extensions to the landscape scale are also made. The cusp catastrophe was chosen to illustrate compositional dynamics at the stand level for jack pine, northern hardwood, and white pine forests in the Great Lakes Region of the United States and for tropical rainforests in the northern Amazon basin. The models feature a response surface (degree of dominance by late-successional species) that depends on two variables: type of neighborhood effects of the dominant tree species and severity of disturbances. Neighborhood effects are processes that affect the chance of a species replacing itself at the time of disturbance (they can be positive, neutral, or negative) and are of two types: overstory-undestory effects, such as the presence of advanced reproduction; and disturbance-activated effects, such as serotinous seed rain. Disturbance severity is the proportion of trees killed during a disturbance. Interactions between neighborhood effects and disturbance severity can lead to either punctuated stability (dramatic but infrequent change in composition, in those forests dominated by species with positive neighborhood effects) or succession (continuous change, in those forests dominated by species with neutral-negative neighborhood effects). We propose that neighborhood effects are a major organizing factor in forest dynamics that provide a link across spatial scales between individual trees and disturbance/patch dynamics at the stand and landscape scales.

show abstract

“…When canopy replacement does inevitably occur, shade-tolerant, mesophytic tree species that are established either prior to or immediately following disturbance capture site resources and decrease oak dominance in the next stand [1]. In addition to broad-scale climate shifts, ascendance of mesophytes at the expense of oaks and hickories has been widely attributed to land use practices and game management policies over the past several decades that together contribute to oak regeneration [2][3][4][5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitating Oak and Hickory Regeneration in Mature Central Hardwood Forests

Holzmueller

Groninger

Ruffner

2014

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Advanced oak and hickory regeneration is often absent in mature oak-hickory forests in the Central Hardwood Region of the United States. Prescribed fire and thinning, alone and combined, are commonly prescribed silvicultural treatments that are recommended to initiate the regeneration process. This study examined the regeneration response in three mature oak stands following four treatments: (1) thin, (2) burn, (3) thinning and burning, or (4) no treatment (control). Ten years after initial treatment, results indicate that oak and hickory seedlings had greater height and diameter in the thinning and burning treatment compared to the control and that this treatment may help facilitate desirable regeneration in mature oak-hickory forests.

show abstract

Historical Variation in Fire, Oak Recruitment, and Post-Logging Accelerated Succession in Central Pennsylvania

Cited by 185 publications

References 34 publications

Distribution, historical development and ecophysiological attributes of oak species in the eastern United States

Distribution, historical development and ecophysiological attributes of oak species in the eastern United States

Minireviews: Neighborhood Effects, Disturbance Severity, and Community Stability in Forests

Facilitating Oak and Hickory Regeneration in Mature Central Hardwood Forests

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About