The association of two invasive shrubs, common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica), with oak communities in the midwestern United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 1981-1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Schulte ◽  
Erik C. Mottl ◽  
Brian J. Palik
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
Quercus Alba ◽  
Forest Edges ◽  
Rhamnus Cathartica ◽  
White Oak ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
Quercus Macrocarpa ◽  
Bur Oak

Oak forests throughout North America are declining due to changes in disturbance regimes that have led to increased competition from other tree and shrub species. We evaluated associations between oak regeneration, the occurrence of two common invasive shrubs (common buckthorn ( Rhamnus cathartica L.) and Tartarian honeysuckle ( Lonicera tatarica L.)), and forest edges in oak forests in a portion of the midwestern United States where bur ( Quercus macrocarpa Michx.), red ( Quercus rubra L.), and white oak ( Quercus alba L.) were historically dominant. We found poor recruitment of oaks in comparison to other, more shade-tolerant tree species. Results further revealed a strong stand-scale association between bur oak, open canopy conditions, high soil nutrient levels, and the presence of common buckthorn and Tartarian honeysuckle; these same site characteristics were disassociated with red and white oak. Within red and white oak stands, however, the presence of the invasive shrubs was more pronounced near forest edges. While oak recruitment is hampered throughout stands, our research suggests that predominant constraints may vary based on soil and light gradients found along forest edges.

Patterns of Holocene Environmental Change in the Midwestern United States

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Baker ◽  
Louis J. Maher ◽  
Craig A. Chumbley ◽  
Kent L. Van Zant
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
North Central ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Mesic Forest ◽  
Holocene Environmental Change

AbstractFour pollen sequences along a transect from north-central Iowa to southeast Wisconsin reveal the distribution of prairie and forest during the Holocene and test the use of pollen isopolls in locating the Holocene prairie-forest border. Prairie was dominant in central Iowa and climate was drier than present from about 8000 to 3000 yr B.P. During the driest part of this period in central Iowa (6500-5500 yr B.P.), mesic forest prevailed in eastern Iowa and Wisconsin, suggesting conditions wetter than at present. Prairie replaced the mesic forest about 5400 yr B.P. in eastern Iowa but did not extend much farther east; mesic forests were replaced in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois about 5400 yr B.P. by xeric oak forests. This change from mesic to xeric conditions at 5400 yr B.P. was widespread and suggests that the intrusion of drier Pacific air was blocked by maritime tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico until the late Holocene in this area.

scholarly journals Prescribing Fire in Eastern Oak Forests: Is Time Running Out?

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc D. Abrams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Sugar Maple ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
White Oak ◽  
European Settlement

Abstract Before European settlement, vast areas of the eastern US deciduous forest were dominated by oak species. Evidence indicates that periodic understory fire was an important ecological factor in the historical development of oak forests. During European settlement of the late 19th and early 20th century, much of the eastern United States was impacted by land-clearing, extensive timber harvesting, severe fires, the chestnut blight, and then fire suppression and intensive deer browsing. These activities had the greatest negative impact on the once-dominant white oak, while temporarily promoting the expansion of other oaks such as red oak and chestnut oak. More recently, however, recruitment of all the dominant upland oaks waned on all but the most xeric sites. Mixed-mesophytic and later successional hardwood species, such as red maple, sugar maple, black birch, beech, black gum and black cherry, are aggressively replacing oak. The leaf litter of these replacement species is less flammable and more rapidly mineralized than that of the upland oaks, reinforcing the lack of fire. The trend toward increases in nonoak tree species will continue in fire-suppressed forests, rendering them less combustible for forest managers who wish to restore natural fires regimes. This situation greatly differs from the western United States, where fire suppression during the 20th century has made a variety of conifer-dominated forests more prone to stand-replacing fire.North. J. Appl. For. 22(3):190 –196.

scholarly journals Cutting Back Stock Plants Promotes Adventitious Rooting of Stems of Quercus bicolor and Quercus macrocarpa

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Naalamle Amissah ◽  
Nina Bassuk
Keyword(s):  
Adventitious Rooting ◽  
Stem Cuttings ◽  
Stock Plant ◽  
White Oak ◽  
Quercus Macrocarpa ◽  
Intact Plants ◽  
Plant Group ◽  
Bur Oak ◽  
Quercus Bicolor ◽  
Swamp White Oak

Abstract Studies were conducted to investigate the severity of cutting back stock plants on adventitious rooting of layered stems and stem cuttings of Quercus bicolor Willd. (swamp white oak) and Quercus macrocarpa Michx. (bur oak). Rooting averaged 77% in Q. bicolor and 70% in Q. macrocarpa layered stems from the cutback stock plant group, compared to air layered stems from intact plants which averaged 1% in Q. bicolor and 0% in Q. macrocarpa. In another experiment cuttings were taken from three stock plant heights [4 cm (1.6 in), or 100 cm (39.4 in) stumps and intact plants ∼ 170 cm (66.9 in)] which were either etiolated or grown in natural light and rooted under mist. The best rooting (59%) and average number of roots (9.3) were found in etiolated Q. bicolor cuttings taken from 4 cm (1.6 in) stumps. Q. macrocarpa cuttings rooted poorly with only 7% of the cuttings rooting. By taking cuttings a week earlier for rooting (2 weeks, at the softwood stage), rooting in Q. macrocarpa was possible, with the best rooting (46%) found in etiolated cuttings taken from 4 cm (1.6 in) stumps. Overall, the highest rooting and greatest number of roots occurred in etiolated layers and cuttings from the 4 cm cutback group. Rooting generally increased with increasing extent of stock plant cutback

The establishment and development of oak forests in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1790-1797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick D Soucy ◽  
Eric Heitzman ◽  
Martin A Spetich
Keyword(s):  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Oak Forests ◽  
Quercus Alba ◽  
Northern Red Oak ◽  
Ozark Mountains ◽  
White Oak ◽  
Fire Scar ◽  
History Of

The disturbance history of six mature white oak (Quercus alba L.) – northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) – hickory (Carya spp.) stands in the Ozark Mountains of northern Arkansas were reconstructed using tree-ring and fire-scar analysis. Results indicate that all six stands originated in the early 1900s following timber harvesting and (or) fire. These disturbances initiated a pulse of oak-dominated establishment. Most sites were periodically burned during the next several decades. Abrupt radial growth increases in all stands during the 1920s to 1940s reflected additional disturbances. These perturbations likely provided growing space for existing trees, but did not result in increased seedling establishment. Thus, multiple disturbances were important in the origin and development of the stands studied. By the 1930s and 1940s, oak establishment was replaced by shade-tolerant, fire-intolerant non-oak species; few oak recruited into tree size classes after the 1950s. The decrease in oaks and the increase in non-oaks coincided with fire suppression. Few scars were recorded during the past 60–70 years. Prescribed fire may be an important management tool in regenerating oak forests in northern Arkansas.

Inequality in the Promised Land

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-180
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sharif Uddin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Suburban Area ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
Minority Community ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Land Race ◽  
The Relationship

Inequality in the promised land: Race, resources, and suburban schooling is a well-written book by L’ Heureux Lewis-McCoy. The book is based on Lewis-McCoy’s doctoral dissertation, that included an ethnographic study in a suburban area named Rolling Acres in the Midwestern United States. Lewis-McCoy studied the relationship between families and those families’ relationships with schools. Through this study, the author explored how invisible inequality and racism in an affluent suburban area became the barrier for racial and economically minority students to grow up academically. Lewis-McCoy also discovered the hope of the minority community for raising their children for a better future.

scholarly journals Impacts of increasing fine fuel loads on acorn germination and early growth of oak seedlings

Fire Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel E. Nation ◽  
Heather D. Alexander ◽  
Geoff Denny ◽  
Jennifer K. McDaniel ◽  
Alison K. Paulson
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Germination Rate ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Leaf Number ◽  
Fuel Load ◽  
Quercus Alba ◽  
White Oak ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Basal Diameter ◽  
Fuel Loads

Abstract Background Prescribed fire is increasingly used to restore and maintain upland oak (Quercus L. spp.) ecosystems in the central and eastern US. However, little is known about how prescribed fire affects recently fallen acorns under different fine fuel loads, which can vary with stand composition and basal area, burn season, and fire frequency. We conducted plot-level (1 m2) burns in an upland oak stand in northern Mississippi, USA, during December 2018, using single (i.e., ambient), double, and triple fine fuel loads, representative of those in nearby unburned and recently fire-treated, closed-canopy stands. Pre burn, we placed 30 acorns each of white oak (Quercus alba L.) and Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii Buckley) ~1 cm below the litter surface in five plots of each fuel treatment. Immediately post burn, we planted unburned and burned acorns in a greenhouse. After ~50% of each species’ unburned acorns germinated, we measured percent germination and height, basal diameter, and leaf number of germinating seedlings weekly for 11 weeks. Then, we harvested seedlings to determine above- and belowground biomass. Results The single fuel treatment reduced acorn germination rates of both species to ~40% compared to ~88% in unburned acorns. When burned in double and triple fuel loads, acorns of both species had a <5% germination rate. There was no difference in basal diameter, leaf number, or biomass of seedlings from burned versus unburned acorns for either species. However, seedlings originating from burned acorns of both species were ~11% shorter than those from unburned acorns. Thus, both species responded similarly to fuel load treatments. Conclusions Acorns of both species exhibited greater survival with lower fine fuel loads, and consequently lower percent fuel consumption. Acorns germinating post fire generally produced seedlings with growth patterns similar to seedlings originating from unburned acorns. These findings indicate that regular, repeated prescribed fires or canopy reductions that limit fine fuel accumulation and create heterogeneous fuel beds are likely to increase acorn germination rates relative to unburned sites or those with recently introduced fire.

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