GEOG 3110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Quercus Muehlenbergii, Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, Spruce Budworm
17 Feb 2016
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Humans are also a cause of disturbance logging in bc. Disturbances can interact: insect outbreak and drought fungal infection and wind. Leaves trees that are left prone to wind throw; trees start to snap at height. fire and herbivory flooding and wind. Chinquapin oak immediately post fire from regeneration oak. Intermediate levels of disturbance maintain maximum species richness by: preventing competitive exclusion of less competitive species, not preventing reproduction of slower maturing species. Change over 11 years in 1 permanent plot; dashed lines indicate changes caused by hurricanes. Results from line transects 3-4 months after hurricane. x-axis % cover of live coral y-axis number of species per sample. Highest levels of species richness had intermediate levels of disturbance. Characterized by long lived shade tolerance trees. An aggregation of trees sufficiently uniform in composition, age, arrangement and condition so that it is distinguishable from the forest in adjoining areas. Disturbances occur at all scales along a gradient.
