Inciting factors including severe drought or insect defoliation can stress oaks into decline. Stands are predisposed to oak decline by high tree density, species composition, advanced tree age, and shallow and rocky soils. Oak decline in the Eastern U.S is caused by complex interactions of predisposing factors, inciting factors, and contributing factors –. Oak decline related to pathology typically begins with foliage wilting and browning followed by progressive branch dieback and tree mortality. The most recent oak decline events occurred from 1999 to 2005 and severely affected approximately 12,000 ha in the Ozark National Forest of Arkansas alone. Since the late 1990s, oak decline has become a prominent problem throughout the Ozark Highlands of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.įor more than a century, oak decline and associated mortality have occurred in the oak forests of the eastern United States.
The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.įunding: This research was funded by the U.S Forest Service South Central Research Station, and the University of Missouri GIS Mission Enhancement Program.
#STAGE PLOT PRO ALTERNATIVES FREE#
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. Received: JanuAccepted: Published: June 18, 2013 PLoS ONE 8(6):Įditor: Ben Bond-Lamberty, DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United States of America Insights from this study may be useful in developing effective and informed forest harvesting plans for managing oak decline.Ĭitation: Wang WJ, He HS, Spetich MA, Shifley SR, Thompson III FR, Fraser JS (2013) Modeling the Effects of Harvest Alternatives on Mitigating Oak Decline in a Central Hardwood Forest Landscape.
The group selection alternative that balanced treatment effects and retaining biomass was the most viable alternative for managing oak decline. The thinning alternative had the highest biomass retention over time, followed by the group selection and clearcutting alternatives. The long-term effects of the three harvest alternatives on mitigating oak decline became less discernible as the role of succession increased. The group selection and clearcutting alternatives were most effective in mitigating oak decline in the short and medium terms, respectively. However, forest harvesting did play a role in mitigating oak decline and the effectiveness varied among the three harvest alternatives. This is because oak decline is a natural process and forest succession (e.g., high tree mortality resulting from intense competition) would eventually lead to the decrease in oak decline in this area. Results showed that the potential oak decline in high risk sites decreased strongly in the next five decades irrespective of harvest alternatives. In this study, we applied a forest landscape model in combination with field studies to evaluate the effects of the three harvest alternatives on mitigating oak decline in a Central Hardwood Forest landscape.
However, the long-term, landscape-scale effects of these different harvest alternatives are not well studied because of the limited availability of experimental data.
Thinning, clearcutting, and group selection are widely adopted harvest alternatives for reducing forest vulnerability to oak decline by removing susceptible species and declining trees. It has greatly altered species composition and stand structure in affected areas. Oak decline is a process induced by complex interactions of predisposing factors, inciting factors, and contributing factors operating at tree, stand, and landscape scales.
0 kommentar(er)
