Deciduous Forests Essay, Research Paper

Deciduous Forests

INTRODUCTION A deciduous wood, merely described is a wood that is leafless

during the winter. Eury species make up this type of forest, intending that the

species can digest a broad scope of conditions. In the utmost northern

latitudes, the turning season is short doing the trees to be leafless the

bulk of the twelvemonth. The deciduous wood is subjected to distinct conditions

rhythms and temperature displacements. In this country of the nor’-east we experience four

distinguishable seasons, and for a tree species to boom it must accommodate to the emphasiss

matching to each season.

Of the three basic types of temperate broadleaf woods, ( temperate deciduous

forest, temperate forests, and temperate evergreen wood ) our lab informations trades

with features of the temperate deciduous wood. This forest type one time

covered big parts of Eurasia, South America, and North America. As with

most native woods, they have been cleared so that the land could be used for

agriculture or residential usage. The temperate deciduous woods of North America

were more diverse than the same type of woods in Europe due to glacial history.

Glacial action dumped boulder clay as the ice border retreated, and North America

inherited a fertile dirt base. Soil type is an of import factor for which

species of trees can boom in an country. The general dominant tree species for

temperate deciduous woods are Beech, Ash, Oak, and in our part besides Tulip,

Maple, Birch, and Hickory. Developed forests consist of four beds. The beds

are: canopy, sub canopy, bush, and land cover. This layering affect benefits

the diverseness of the ecosystem by supplying a rich assortment of home grounds. It is a

consequence of version and competition for sunshine and shows the go oning

procedure of sequence. The stratification of a wood, by stoping the some

of the available sunshine at assorted locations, besides creates micro-climates with

a broad scope of temperatures and wet conditions. The dirt composing besides

greatly influences the sum of H2O that is available to the works species.

The composing of the dirt, the assorted bed development and the food

content are major factors in the endurance of specific species of trees. Climate

and dirt type are a-biotic factors, intending they are outside and unmanageable

by the species itself. Insect infestations such as Gypsy moths and disease such

as the Chestnut blight are besides a-biotic factors that in a comparatively short

period of clip can badly thin out or destruct a specific species of tree. It

might merely add plenty emphasis to one species, where a viing species will so

out-compete it and so rule.

The rhythm of dropping the foliages when the yearss turn short is critical for the

refilling of foods in the dirt. This litter bed decomposes and returns

organic stuff to the trees through leeching and decomposition into the upper

dirt beds where they can be reused by re-absorption through the roots.

METHODS This lab involved the probe of a deciduous wood located on the

undeveloped part of the campus. The study techniques used to roll up informations

for the flora analysis part of this lab were the quadrant and line

intercept methods. Using pre-established 25 metre square secret plans, on opposite

sides of a watercourse, the tree species and sizes were mapped and recorded. Breast

tallness diameter measurings were made on the canopy and sub canopy trees in

each quarter-circle. The types of trees found and the figure per species was recorded

and used to calculate which species were dominate. Each quarter-circle besides used a random

line intercept of 10 metres in length to find the denseness of the shrub

coverage of the quarter-circles. A dirt analysis of both sides of the brook was besides

conducted to find the affects of a-bioti

hundred conditions on the species

recorded in the flora analysis. Multiple samples of the A1 and A2 skylines

were collected and analyzed utilizing standard showing and drying phases to

determine dirt atom size and wet content. The measuring of the

specific gravitation utilizing a gravimeter while the dirt atoms are settling out in

a flask is used to cipher the per centums of sand, silt, and clay fractions

of the dirt samples. These trying techniques were derived from exercisings # 14

and # 40 located in: George W. Cox, Laboratory Manual of General Ecology, 7th

edition, W.C. Brown Publishing, 1996.

RESULTS & A ; DISCUSSION The information for this lab was analyzed in phases. In the two

charts provided, the overall differences between the two sides of the wood can

be seen. The first chart compares the tree species found on each side of the

wood and shows the comparative laterality. Relative laterality compares the

presence of one species to the entire presence of all species located in the

wood and expresses this value as a per centum. The overall tendency in the

comparative laterality informations shows a clear alteration from one side of the brook to the

other. On the north side of the brook, the dominant tree species is the Beech

tree, busying over 50 % of the canopy country. The Beech tree is besides the most

dominant tree species in the bomber canopy bed every bit good. The information shows that the

Beech species is making good and has an assured hereafter in the country as indicated

as the laterality of the same species in the bomber canopy. On the northern sites,

the canopy is comparatively good developed and has virtually no shrubs, merely

saplings largely of the parent dominant Beech. On the southern side of the brook,

the Tulip tree is the dominant tree type in the canopy bed with about half of

the country occupied. In the bomber canopy bed, the Sugar Maple is clearly dominant

at 90 % . It seems that the Tulip trees are at the terminal of there life rhythm and are

unable to bring forth any offspring to let the species to go on to rule

that country, as there were no immature Tulip saplings found in the bomber canopy. The

southern side is heavier in the shrub bed due to the chances to derive

sunlight through the weakness canopy. The 2nd chart shows the dirt analysis.

The differences in the dirt content are besides clear. The entire per centum of H2O

held in the A-1 skyline of the dirt on the Beech side, is about 6 % more

moist than the Tulip side. The sum of organics in the Beech side are besides

higher by about one to two per centum than the Tulip side dirt. The

specific gravitation measurings indicated that the Tulip side is chiefly flaxen

( A1 skyline ) side but the Beech side informations s does non demo a clear composing.

Both the sum of H2O and the sum of organic foods in the dirt are

of import a-biotic factors that can impact the ability of any species to boom

in an country. The northern side besides contains a high concentration of big stone,

virtually non present in the Tulip side. This indicates that there is a

difference in the dirt building, given that dirt is produced by the interruption

down of local parent stuff. This lab showed how the species in a assorted wood

are influenced by a-biotic factors. The general tendency of the information does demo

that there are distinguishable differences in the building of the wood. The

differences in the dirt composing may hold pushed the beech tree into a

dominant province in their location. However, it would be hard to state that the

diminution in the Tulip tree population is due to dirty depletion entirely. It may be

due to the natural life span of the species or a emphasis from a old death.

The tulips are non bring forthing any new seedlings, perchance proposing that the

conditions that one time allowed the Tulip to boom no longer be, but the

current conditions now favor the Sugar Maples.