The document provides an overview of forest ecology, including how trees grow, the distribution and diversity of forests, forest habitats and ecology, forest management, and threats to forests. It discusses tree cell structure, growth through primary and secondary meristems, tree cross-sections and aging. It also covers climate zones, soil types, forest types, and forest layers that provide habitat. Forest management objectives, harvests as disturbances, and threats such as missing predators, deer, and invasive plants are summarized.

1. Forest Ecology Arlington Regional Master Naturalists Basic Training Course Spring 2011 Jim McGlone Urban Forest Conservationist Virginia Department of Forestry

2. Outline How Trees Grow Distribution and Diversity Forest Habitats Forest Ecology Management Forest Threats DOF Citizen Action

3. How a Tree Grows

4. What is a tree? How is a tree different from a perennial herbaceous plant? How is a tree different from a vine? How is a tree different from a shrub?

5. Basic Plant Cell Cell Walls - made of cellulose and lignin Central Vacuoles - stores water and gives rigidity Plasmoderma - connects cytoplasm Chloroplasts - conducts photosynthesis

6. Plant Cell Wall Middle Lamella – shared with other cells, lignin and pectin, gives compressive strength Primary cell wall – oriented cellulose fiber, gives tensile strength Plasma membrane – same as animal cell membrane

7. How does a tree grow? Primary Meristem AKA Buds Elongates into shoots Produces Cortex Epidermis Lateral buds Or becomes a leaf Or becomes a flower Secondary Meristem AKA Cambium Located between bark and wood Produces vascular tissue Xylem persists as wood and moves water and nutrients Phloem becomes bark or is reabsorbed and moves sugars

10. Tree Cross Section

11. Tree Growth Review Growth occurs only from meristem tissue (cambium, stem and root tips). Early (spring) wood is light and softer. Late (summer) wood is dark and denser. 1 light + 1 dark ring = 1 year’s growth

12. Aging and Death Must grow new sapwood every year. Why? This becomes a bigger and bigger energy drain. [ π (2nr + n 2 )] Can grow less wood, but that means less water for energy production. Eventually growth in energy demand is greater than growth in energy production, the tree goes into energy deficit, declines and dies.

13. Distribution of Forests

14. Horizontal Distribution Large scale Climate Geology Landscape scale Soil types topography

15. Climate Average Temperature Date of First/Last Frost Average & Timing of Rainfall Soil weathering

16. Climate Zones in Virginia

17. Virginia Plants Approximately 4,000 species of plants in Virginia Of those 609 considered rare or threatened as of 2007 Approximately 750 plant species are introduced Approximately 300 tree species

18. Soil Types Moisture Nutrients

19. Soil Types

20. Soil Type

21. Soil Type

22. Soil Nutrients

23. Topography

24. Forest Types Dominant tree species, but also soil type, elevation or moisture level http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/ncterrestrial.shtml Dry-Mesic Calcareous Forests Basic Oak – Hickory Forests Acidic Oak – Hickory Forests Montane Mixed Oak and Oak – Hickory Forests Oak / Heath Forests Eastern White Pine – Hardwood Forests Piedmont / Coastal Plain Oak – Beech / Heath Forests Carolina Hemlock Forests Pine – Oak / Heath Woodlands Mountain / Piedmont Acidic Woodlands

25. Northern Virginia Geology

26. Forest Habitats

27. Fauna Birds Mammals Herps Insects

28. Habitat Needs Food Nesting Resting Water

29. Forest Layers

30. Habitat

31. Coarse Woody Debris

32. Edge

33. Forest Ecology

34. Energy Flows

35. Detritus Bio-mass

36. FOREST ECOLOGY PART 2 Some Important Processes

37. Trophic Regulation

38. Mychorrhizae Symbiosis between tree roots and fungi. Trees supply energy Fungi supply nutrients and water. Reason forest soils are acidic. Truffles

39. Tree Defenses External Defense Chemicals Nicotine Tannin Salicylic Acid External Fungi and bacteria Birds Mammals Herps Insects Acacia and ants Internal Defense Chemical Fungicides Bactericides Physical Gums and resins Growth rings Parenchymal rays

40. Evolution of Natural Communities Past Management Seed Availability Luck Microclimates and Topography

41. Natural Communities are like Bus Stations Seed Dispersal

43. Competition Tolerance Tolerance Time

44. Tolerance Pioneer species are usually intolerant of competition for light – Virginia Pine, Eastern Red Cedar, Tulip poplar Climax species are very tolerant of competition and can regenerate themselves in their own shade – Maple, Beech, Holly

45. Bio-diversity Bio-diversity Time Most plants are between intolerant pioneer species and tolerant climax species. Climax v. Old Growth

46. Disturbance resets successional clock Highly disturbed systems are stuck in early succession Undisturbed systems progress to climax stage Intermediate disturbance cycles a system between stages of succession Disturbance

47. Stable Plant Matrices

48. FOREST MANAGEMENT

49. Why Manage a Forest? Break down in regulatory processes Loss of apex predators Loss of disturbance regime Introduction of stressors Air pollution Invasive species Human decisions Increase bio-diversity Loss of habitat type

50. Forest Management Objectives

51. Harvest as Disturbance

52. Harvest as Disturbance

53. Harvest as Disturbance

54. A Word About Fire. In order to spread, fire needs a continuous fuel bed. Managing fire is about managing fuel continuity .

55. Urban Trees

56. Threats to the Forest

57. Regulation If the deer eat more than NPP, the population expands and increases N2P; which causes wolf population to expand and eat more deer; deer population declines, plants expand, wolves starve. It is a dynamic equilibrium.

58. Missing Apex Predators Deer population is now controlled by starvation. Deer consume all available energy on forest floor and lower shrub layer. As death and growth remove plants from the shrub layer, it disappears without recruitment from the forest floor

60. EFFECT of Missing Shrub Layer Loss of diversity in song birds Loss of diversity in small mammals Increased human disease Loss of stormwater management Loss of air quality Loss of carbon sink Loss of forest health

61. Deer and Invasive Plants Deer and other native herbivores prefer native plants Excessive browse on natives can create a vacuum into which non-natives invade

62. Non-native Invasive Plants Compete with forest plants for sun and sprouting space Vines can kill mature trees Are generally free from predation.

63. Citizen Action Start at home ASNV Wildlife Sanctuary NWF Backyard Habitat Develop a Layered Landscape with herbs, shrubs and trees in the same space

64. 2010

65. 2010

66. Citizen Action Deer Management Fairfax County Wildlife Biologist FCPA Deer Pellet Program Venison Stew Invasive Plants ACE Program

67. Recommended Reading Forests in Peril , Delcourt, 2002 McNaughton & Gunn 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann Collapse , Jared Diamond Positive Impact Forestry, Thom J. McEvoy, Island Press, 2004 Bringing Nature Home , Douglas Tallamy, Timber Press, 2007 Teaming With Microbes , Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis, Timber Press, 2010 (Revised)