Oak forest

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White oak (Quercus alba) in New Jersey. 2013-05-04 17 18 04 Stunted white oak saplings beneath the large white oak near the tributary to the West Branch Shabakunk Creek between Walton and Farrell Avenues.jpg
White oak ( Quercus alba ) in New Jersey.

An oak forest is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (Quercus spp.). In terms of canopy closure, oak forests contain the most closed canopy, compared to oak savannas and oak woodlands. [1]

Contents

Setting

Oak forests are categorized as deciduous forests which commonly have dense canopy cover (~70%) on dry soils with large amounts of undecomposed oak leaves over the ground. [2] The forests are commonly found around the Appalachian Mountains and neighboring areas in the Midwest United States. [3] Soils within the forests are highly acidic and dry with habitats existing in low elevation areas as well as large mountainsides, providing resources and an ecosystem for large amounts of common plant and animal species in those regions. [3] Indicated by the large presence of oaks (Quercus spp.), the community is also dominated by inflammable shrubs and different vegetation commonly seen in oak savannas and oak woodlands. [4] [1] This plant life is often credited with assisting in maintaining air, soil, and water quality as well as playing a major role in biodiversity of different state regions. [3]

Besides in North America, oak forests also occur in the temperate parts of Europe and Asia. Species richness of oak trees are highest in eastern Asia, followed by North America, and Europe, where only two (tall) oak species occur. This is believed to due to the last Ice Age, after which many tree species disappeared from Europe (the trees faced a barrier for migration; the Mediterranean Sea). [5] In Scandinavia, for instance, oak forest was strongly reduced during the last 400-500 years, mainly due to warfare and shipbuilding. In Sweden, the oaks only make up a few percent of the total above-ground woody biomass of forests, which are dominated by conifers and conifer forestry. [6] . However, although regeneration of oaks are problematic in Europe as well as in North America, the standing volume of oaks has increase between 1953 and 2015. [7]

Conservation and Threats

Oak forests are susceptible to a shift in the tree demography, with greater abundances of shade-tolerant and fire-sensitive species, such as red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (A. saccharum), American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and hickory (Carya spp.). [8] This leads to a lack of oak seedings and saplings to grow and replace mature oaks (Quercus spp.) once they die and growth in abundance of new species. Deer browse is also a large threat to the plant community as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) use oak seedlings for consumption at growing rates with increasing population sizes. [9]

To combat this, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve attempted controlled fires to burn off leaf litter of competing non-oaks without harming mature trees to encourage oak seed growth. Only the site of Backus Mountain showed positive effects of the controlled burns as oak seedlings grew in amount and maple seedlings reduced while all other sites found decreases in oak seeds. [9] Deer browse is also combatted by the organization with tall deer fences being installed in 10-acre sections of oak forests, promoting the growth of tall oak seedlings regularly and is now encourage by the National Park Service to forest managers having to handle similar issues. [9]

Examples

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Oak Woodland - Wisconsin DNR". dnr.wi.gov. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  2. "Mixed Oak Forest/Woodland | Mass.gov". www.mass.gov. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  3. 1 2 3 "Oak / Heath Forests". www.dcr.virginia.gov. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  4. "Oak Ecosystem". Let The Sun Shine In. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  5. Latham, R. & Ricklefs, R.E (1993). Continental comparisons of temperate-zone tree species diversity. Chapter in book: Species Diversity in Ecological Communities: Historical and Geographical Perspectives: University of Chicago Press. pp. 294–314.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Löf, M., Brunet, J., Mattson, L., Nylinder, M. "Broadleaved Forests in Southern Sweden: Management for Multiple Goals". Ecological Bulletin. 53: 1–248.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Pettersson, L., and more authors (2019). "Changing land use and increasing abundance of deer cause natural regeneration failure of oaks: Six decades of landscape-scale evidence". Forest Ecology and Management. 444: 299–307.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Babl-Plauche, E. K.; Alexander, H. D.; Siegert, C. M.; Willis, J. L.; Berry, A. I. (2022-05-15). "Mesophication of upland oak forests: Implications of species-specific differences in leaf litter decomposition rates and fuelbed composition". Forest Ecology and Management. 512: 120141. Bibcode:2022ForEM.51220141B. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120141 . ISSN   0378-1127. S2CID   247503547.
  9. 1 2 3 "Protecting Oak Forests in National Parks (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  10. "Southern Dry-Mesic Oak Forest" (PDF). dnr.state.mn.us. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  11. Mauri, A., Enescu, C. M., Houston Durrant, T., de Rigo, D., Caudullo, G., 2016. Quercus frainetto in Europe: distribution, habitat, usage and threats. In: San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., de Rigo, D., Caudullo, G., Houston Durrant, T., Mauri, A. (Eds.), European Atlas of Forest Tree Species. Publ. Off. EU, Luxembourg, pp. e01de78+