White oak (Quercus alba) advance reproduction under uneven-aged management in the Ozark Highlands : seedling demography, establishment, and growth responses
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White oak (Quercus alba L.) remains a foundation tree species in Missouri and elsewhere across eastern U.S. forests despite ongoing regeneration problems existing for nearly a century. These issues have led to region-wide structural and compositional forest shifts with the potential to permanently displace the species in forest ecosystems. Despite these regeneration issues, white oak exhibits resilient traits such as persistent survival, a capacity to occupy broad site conditions, and adaptations to drought and fire disturbance; most notably being its ability to reinitiate stem growth, or resprout, following top kill. Resprouting dynamics, critical to white oak's historical dominance, have been successfully promoted in even-aged management (EAM). However, a desire for uneven-aged management (UAM) has become prominent in Missouri's Ozark Highlands, where the species exists in its greatest density across its current range. Here, uneven-aged white oak forests provide a greater public acceptance of continuous canopy cover, opportunities to restore old-growth structures, and economic incentives of high-value timber products. This study evaluated UAM's impacts on white oak advance reproduction (wOAR) in the Ozark Highlands by merging dendrochronology and quantitative wood anatomy (QWA) methods to analyze seedling stems and roots at a cellular resolution. Age data revealed long-term understory residencies with notable variability in root-to-stem age relationships, and widespread resprouting even in fire's absence. Growth was strongly related to prolonged canopy openness, emphasizing light availability as a critical factor for recruitment success. These findings inform UAM strategies that may sustain white oak's ecological resilience, economic value, social benefit, and cultural legacy.
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M.S.