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Managing
Oak in the Northern Forest
Poster Presentations
Interspecific hybridization in oaks and climate change
Oliver Gailing, School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, Mi 49931, Phone: 906 487 1615, email: ogailing@mtu.edu.
Abstract: Considering the predicted northward tree migration (estimated 100km/century) in the eastern United States due to the impact of climate change, hybridization between related oak species is expected to be more frequent on the Upper Peninsula due to overlapping distribution ranges in the future. Oak species are certainly “hot spots” of contemporary hybridization and the predicted climate change (drier summers, more extreme forest fires, etc.) is expected to enhance the competitiveness of oaks in the Upper Peninsula.
In order to understand the role of hybridization in adaptive evolution and in facilitating major ecological transitions we plan to quantify the amount of interspecific gene flow between sympatric oak species (e.g. Quercus rubra and Q. ellipsoidalis) that show different ecological requirements and to perform a genome-wide screening for genes involved in different local genetic adaptation of the species to their environments.
Tree-ring analyses of red oak under shelterwood management and interactions with climate
Sophan Chhin, Assistant Professor of Silviculture; 126 Natural Resources Building, Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824-1222; E-mail: chhin@msu.edu; Tel: (517) 353-7251
John Willis, Graduate Student; 126 Natural Resources Building, Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824-1222; E-mail: willis21@msu.edu
Abstract: Foresters have long considered the management of oak forests problematic because oaks reproduce with difficulty, and on mesic sites is often replaced by more shade tolerant species. In 1971, plots within the Fred Russ Experimental Forest located in southwest Michigan were treated with a clearcut, group selection, or shelterwood harvest in an attempt to increase red oak (Quercus rubra) regeneration. An evaluation of the treatments in 1985 showed both the clearcut and the shelterwood treatments significantly reproduced more red oak than the other treatments. In 1987 a new study was initiated within a portion of the clearcut and shelterwood plots to evaluate the effectiveness of additional oak release (mechanical and chemical applications). Preliminary tree-ring studies (dendrochronology) were initiated in the summer of 2009 to examine the effect of the two shelterwood treatments and climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) on annual radial growth patterns in red oak.
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Forest in the Upper Peninsula. Comments, questions,
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Last update of this page
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24 November, 2010
