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Forest Ecology

Forest Ecology. What is forest ecology?. Study of Relationships between organisms and their environments Interactions of organisms with one another Patterns and causes of abundance and distribution of organisms in forests. What forest ecology is not. From Gurevitch et al. 2006.

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Forest Ecology

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  1. Forest Ecology

  2. What is forest ecology? • Study of • Relationships between organisms and their environments • Interactions of organisms with one another • Patterns and causes of abundance and distribution of organisms in forests What forest ecology is not From Gurevitch et al. 2006

  3. Organisms and Their Environment • Climate – temperature, precipitation, etc. • Note the importance of how these variables are measured and expressed • Soils • Light • Interactions and combinations • Niche – the range of conditions in which a species can survive; i.e., where a species’ traits allow it to successfully interact with its environment

  4. Examples of Niche • Sugar maple • Jack pine • Larch

  5. Sugar Maple

  6. Jack Pine

  7. Larch

  8. What happens when niches overlap? • If there aren’t enough resources to meet the optimum amount for each individual, competition will occur, resulting in • Reduced growth rate for one or both or • Mortality to one of the competitors • In many situations, the species will have developed ways to minimize competition, such as • Get their nutrients and water from different depths in the soils • Flower at different times relative to leaf development

  9. Trillium • Trilliums flower early, before the hardwood trees above them leaf out – thus giving them time to flower before it is too shaded

  10. Forest Communities/Ecosystems • All the species of plants and animals interacting with • One another and • Their environments • Examples

  11. Spruce-Fir

  12. Northern Hardwoods

  13. Forest Changes • Disturbance and Succession • Forests are always changing due to • Disturbances • Plant growth and mortality • Examples of disturbances • “Recovery” after disturbances

  14. Examples of Disturbance - Fire

  15. Examples of Disturbance - Wind Examples of Disturbance - Wind

  16. Disturbance Example - Harvesting

  17. Succession • Changes in species composition, structure, and processes following a disturbance • Those changes will be driven by the environment and biota • Harvard Forest dioramas illustrate a typical sequence of land changes from clearing during settlement to land abandonment when agriculture in New England went down hill (for multiple reasons)

  18. Harvard Forest Dioramas Harvard Forest dioramas illustrate a typical sequence of land changes from clearing during settlement to land abandonment when agriculture in New England went down hill (for multiple reasons)

  19. Presettlement Forests

  20. 1740 - Early Land Clearing

  21. 1830 - Height of Cultivation

  22. 1850 - Land Abandonment

  23. 1910 - Harvest of Old-Field White Pine

  24. 1915 - Hardwoods Follow Pine Harvest

  25. 1930 - Hardwoods Reach Cordwood Size

  26. Old-Field Succession

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