Season of burn effects on vegetation structure and composition in oak-dominated Appalachian hardwood forests

Abstract Previous research indicates that low-intensity single or multiple prescribed burns in oak-dominated upland hardwood forest do not substantially change stand structure or species composition of the arborescent regeneration layer, leading managers and ecologists to suggest that burns during the growing-season may better achieve restoration goals. We examined season of burn effects on dry-mesic oak-hickory forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina. Treatments included: (1) control (CON); (2) dormant-season burn (DSB), and (3) growing-season burn (GSB). Prior to burning and again after three growing seasons post-burn, we inventoried the forest overstory (stems ≥ 25 cm dbh), subcanopy (stems ≥ 5 and

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Forest Ecology and Management

• Publication date

  2019-02-15

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/J.FORECO.2018.11.027
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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