Today, we are going to look at the development of a single cohort stand. A single cohort is a stand of trees that become established within 10 years of each other. After a major disturbance in which all trees in the local area are killed, that region will (usually) go through four stages, which we will learn about in this lecture. Stand initiation, stem exclusion, understory re-initiation, and old growth.
Read moreLecture 13: Spatial Variation in Vegetation Patterns
In today's lecture, we are going to at how topography, (elevation, slope aspect, latitude, rain-shadows, microtopography) soil properties, and disturbance helps describe the spatial patterns we see in vegetation. We will better understand the emergent landscape and how natural selection selects for plant communities that compete the least with each other. These spatial and temporal interactions are quite complex and are applied differently in every ecosystem on this planet, but hopefully, by the end of the lecture, we will be able to better understand forest ecology from the perspective of the forest floor.
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3 North American examples of changing forest disturbance regimes
In today's lecture, we are going to look at three North American examples of forest disturbances. From the Giant Sequoias on the west coast to the boreal ecosystems stretching throughout Canada, to old-growth oak forests in my own backyard. Disturbance regimes are changing through direct and indirect human interactions. These interactions are altering the species composition of these forests as well as the way they function. We'll study how these researchers applied methods of dendrochronology and the underlying principles of forest ecology to answer these questions. We will look at these patterns and hopefully be able to better understand forest ecology from the perspective of the forest floor.
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