Forest ecology

Death and regeneration

Forest regrowth after a forest fire, 

Cascade Range

, United States

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Woody material, often referred to as 

coarse woody debris

, 

decays

 relatively slowly in many

forests in comparison to most other 

organic

 materials, due to a combination of

environmental factors and wood chemistry (see 

lignin

). Trees growing in 

arid

 and/or cold

environments do so especially slowly. Thus, tree trunks and branches can remain on the

forest floor for long periods, affecting such things as wildlife 

habitat

, fire behaviour, and tree

regeneration

 processes.

Some trees leave behind eerie skeletons after death. In reality these deaths are actually very

few compared to the amount of tree deaths that go unnoticed. Thousands of seedlings can

be produced from a single tree but only a few can actually grow to maturity.

[13]

 Most of those

deaths are caused from competition for light, water, or soil nutrients, this is called natural

thinning. Singular deaths caused by natural thinning go unnoticed, but many deaths can help

form forest ecosystems.

[13]

 There are four stages to forest regrowth after a disturbance, the

establishment phase which is rapid increase in seedlings, the thinning phase which happens

after a canopy is formed and the seedlings covered by it die, the transition phase which

occurs when one tree from the canopy dies and creates a pocket of light giving new

seedlings opportunity to grow, and lastly the steady-state phase which happens when the

forest has different sizes and ages of trees.

[13]

Clear cutting

Close to nature forestry

Deforestation and climate change

Forest Ecology and Management (journal)

Forest Principles

Intact forest landscapes

Mountain ecology

Old-growth forest

Plant ecology

Regeneration (ecology)