Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Patterns Of Post-Fire Aspen Seedling Establishment, Growth, And Mortality In The Western United States, Mark Regier Kreider

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sexual seedling establishment in aspen is increasingly recognized as an important natural regeneration pathway for the species in the western U.S. However, information on seedling abundance as well as factors influencing aspen sexual regeneration is limited and frequently anecdotal, due to historical assumptions of seedling rarity as well as difficulty identifying sexual seedlings from asexual aspen sucker regeneration. This thesis contributes to the field of aspen seedling ecology in three major ways. Chapter 1 utilizes historical aspen seedling occurrences in the western U.S. and a systematic field survey of 2018 fire footprints to explore patterns and test assumptions of aspen …