Life Sciences Commons^™

Reviewing Fire, Climate, Deer, And Foundation Species As Drivers Of Historically Open Oak And Pine Forests And Transition To Closed Forests, Brice B. Hanberry, Marc D. Abrams, Mary A. Arthur, J. Morgan Varner

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Historically open oak and pine savannas and woodlands have transitioned to closed forests comprised of increased numbers of tree species throughout the eastern United States. We reviewed evidence for and against a suite of previously postulated drivers of forest transition focused on (1) change in fire regimes, (2) increased precipitation, (3) increased white-tailed deer densities, and (4) loss of American chestnut. We found that fire and fire exclusion provide a parsimonious mechanism for historical dominance by open forests of fire-tolerant oak and/or pine species and subsequent transition to closed forests with fire-sensitive tree species that fill the vertical profile. Based …