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RedOak Stand in the BancroftDistrict,
Forest Research Information Paper No. 119
A history of fire, disturbance, and growth in a red oak stand in the Bancroft District, Ontario
A report prepared for the Ontario Forest Research Institute Silviculture Program by Dr. Richard Guyette University of Missouri 1-30 Agriculture Bldg. Columbia MO 65211 USA and Dr. Dan Dey Ontario Forest Research Institute Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Canada
Ontario Forest Research Institute 1235 Queen Street East P.O. Box 969 Sault Ste. Marie, P6A 5N5
Ontario
Ontario (_ Ontario
Natural Ministryof Resources
Research Forest Institute OFRI * IRFO
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Guyette, Richard A history of fire, disturbance, and growth in a red oak stand in the Bancroft district, Ontario (Forest research information paper, ISSN O319-9118 ; 119) Issued by Ontario Forest Research Institute. ISBN 0-7778-3686-6 1. Red Oak--Ontario--Bancroft Region. I. Dey, D. (Dan) II. Ontario Ministry of Naturat Resources. IlL Ontario Forest Research institute. IV. Title. V. Series. SD397.012G89
1995
634.9'7217
© 1995, Queen's Printer for Ontario Printed in Ontario, Canada Single copies of this publication are available at no charge from the address noted below. Bulk orders may involve charges. Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario Forest Research Institute P.O. Box 969 1235 Queen St. East Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario P6A 5N5 Telephone: (705) 946-2981 Fax: (705) 946-2030 Cette publication seientifique n'est d_sponible qu'en anglais.
C95-954015-0
INTRODUCTION Disturbanceisintegralto the regenerationand
logging has become an important disturbance fac-
growth of northern red oak (Quercusrubra L) in
tot while fire has become lessimportant because of
Ontario, and historicallyfire has favoured red oak
suppressionefforts,which began in the 1920s in On-
regeneration (Lorimer 1985, 1989, 1993; Abrams
tario (Cwynar 1977, MacKay1978, Lynham 1985).
1992; Abrams and Nowacki 1992; Johnson 1993;
In this report, we examine the occurrence of fire,
Van Lear and Wait 1993). In the pre-suppression
and the effectsoffireand climateonthe growthand
era, fire was an important disturbance event that
regeneration of northern red oak in central Ontario.
affected forestsuccession and regeneration in On-
Oak and red pine (Pious resinosa Ait.) stem cross-
tario (Cwynar 1977, 1978; Lynham 1985), and
sections taken near the ground were used to deter-
many firesburned annually overlarge areas {Howe
mine:1) the dates of firescars, 2) serialvariations in
and White 1913; Cwynar 1977, 1978; MacKay
growth,3) periods of regeneration, and 4) the dates
1978; Ward and Tithecott 1993). More recently,
ofgrowth release and suppression.
METHODS Thestudytreeswerelocatedon a two-hasite
ash (FraxinusamericanaL.) and basswood( Tilia
nearBarry'sBay,Ontario(Figure1). Thesample
americanaL.)comprisedonty19%ofthebasalarea,
treesgrewin anuplandoakforeston fiatto sloping
but a majority of thesetreeswere greaterthan 20
terrain (0 to 35%slope). Thesitewas somewhat
cm in dbh. Therewerealsominorcomponentsof
pyrogenic,with fine fuels(e.g.hardwoodleaflitter,
black cherry (PrunusserotinaEhrh.),white pine
grassesand forbs),a southwesternaspect,and a
(PinusstrobusL.), beech(FagusgrandifoliaEhrh.)
positionat thetopof along,slopinghillside(Figure
and hemlock[Tsugacanadensis(L.) Cart.) in the
2). The oldestoaksampledwas179yearsold.and
overstorey.
theyoungestwas68. Tables1and2 summarize the characteristics of the studysite,the standand the treesusedin the dendrochronologyanalyses.Red oak comprised39% of the stand'sbasalareaand
A singlecross-section (takenapproximately 15 to 30 cm abovethe ground)from eachof 22 northern red oak and one red pine were usedto collectgrowthandfire scardata. Twochronologies
waspresentprimarily in theoverstorey.Sugarma-
for redoakgrowthwereconstructed fromring-width
pie (AcersaccharumMarsh.)wasthe mostnumerous treespecieson the site,but 88% of themaples
measurements madeon onegrowthradius(ground
were less than 20 cm in dbh. Sugar maple dotalnated the understorey with other species such as ironwood(OslryavirEiniana(Mill.)K. Koch} White
level)for each of the 22 trees. Series of ring-width measurements were cross-matched and checked throughCOFECHA.a tree-ringanalysisprogramthat m
[]
Figure 1. Locutionof the studysitenearBarry'sBay,Ontario.
\ matches ring-width series, to ensure the absolute
thatbestreflectsthe growth _endofthe standdueto
dating of each of the 2461 annual rings(Holmeset
climate and tree biology and 2) a residual chronol-
al. 1986). Belween-tree ring-width correlations
ogy (Figure 4) that uses auto-regressivemodelling
ranged from0.59 to 0.86. Curveswere fittedto the
to maximizethe annual climatesignal in the ring-
raw ring-widthseriesto minimizering-widthvariance
width data. The chronologies were developed us-
due to nonclimatiefactorssuch as release, suppres-
ingARSTAN,a standardizalionand chronology-con-
sion and treesize. Tworing-widthchronologieswere constructed: i) a standard chronology (Figure3]
s_ction program (Cook and Holmes1984).
I
Figure 2. Representativephotographs of the upland oak study site, showing typical stand and site characteristics.
I
Table 1. Siteand treecharacteristics for norlhernred oak sampledin this study. Variable
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
StdDev
Aspect(degrees)
22
0
340
226
87.9
Diameter(cm)
21
18.5
66.7
37.4
12.23
2.3
5.4
3.6
0.7
Growth(mm/dia/year) 21
Table 2. Characteristics of the studystand.
Species
BasalArea' (mVha)
TreesPerHa *
AverageDbh(cm)
SugarMaple
10.22
675.4
10.6± 8.9
WhiteAsh
2.35
48.1
22.6± 10.5
WhitePine
0.49
1.2
67.5
Beech
0.40
20.6
12.4± 10.1
Total
31.51
1095.9
22.3
Fortrees > 2.5 cm in dbh.
D
Figure 3. A standardring-widthindexderivedfrom 22 redoak trees,whichmaximizesthe biological responseof the stand,includingshort-termautocorrelatedgrowthtrends.An indexvalueof 1.0 representsthe averagering-widthgrowthfor red oak in thisstudy.
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