Is there evidence of mesophication of oak forests in the Missouri Ozarks?

Abstract

Many studies on oak-dominated forests of the Central Hardwood region (CHR) have reported increasing abundance of fire-sensitive species and poor recruitment of oak (Quercus spp.) in the absence of frequent fire. However, most of these studies were conducted in the eastern and central CHR, and the assumption that similar dynamics occur in the western CHR has not been fully substantiated. We investigated forest dynamics in relatively undisturbed, mature oak-hickory forests of the Missouri Ozarks during a 15-year period (1995-2010). Data for this study were from untreated sites (controls) of the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) that have not experienced wildfire or harvesting for over a half century. In order to evaluate the influence of site quality on compositional dynamics, we selected a subset of permanent plots found on four ecological land types (ELTs) spanning a range of site qualities. The density of maple (Acer spp.) seedlings (

Parent Publication

• Proceedings 19th Central Hardwood Forest Conference

Citation

Olson, Matthew G.; Stevenson, Aaron P.; Knapp, Benjamin O.; Kabrick, John M.; Jensen, Randy G. 2014. Is there evidence of mesophication of oak forests in the Missouri Ozarks?. In: Groninger, John W.; Holzmueller, Eric J.; Nielsen, Clayton K.; Dey, Daniel C., eds. Proceedings, 19th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; 2014 March 10-12; Carbondale, IL. General Technical Report NRS-P-142. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 139-153.