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Early stump sprouting after clearcutting in a northern Missouri bottomland hardwood forest

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Midwestern bottomland hardwood forests are often composed of species that are capable of sprouting vigorously, yet relatively little is known about sprout development within these mixed-species systems. This study describes stump sprouting of midwestern bottomland hardwood species in the first 3 growing seasons after a clearcutting with reserves (∼2.0 m2/ha of residual basal area) treatment. Our results revealed that sprout development varied between species and between small and large parent trees over the 3-year study period. Stumps of American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.), American elm (Ulmus americana L.), and green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.) maintained higher than 80 percent survival; the cumulative survival of river birch (Betula nigra L.) was 13 percent by the third growing season. Our results did not support a growth tradeoff between dominant sprout height and the number of live sprouts produced. The variation in sprouting ability that we observed in this study confirms the importance of factoring in pretreatment stand structure and composition when deciding on silvicultural regeneration methods in these bottomland hardwood forests.

Parent Publication

Citation

Olson, Matthew G.; Knapp, Benjamin O. 2017. Early stump sprouting after clearcutting in a northern Missouri bottomland hardwood forest. In: Kabrick, John M.; Dey, Daniel C.; Knapp, Benjamin O.; Larsen, David R.; Shifley, Stephen R.; Stelzer, Henry E., eds. Proceedings of the 20th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; 2016 March 28-April 1; Columbia, MO. General Technical Report NRS-P-167. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 99-109.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/53762