Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2010

Abstract

The Post Oak Savannah occupies about 3.4 million hectares of gently rolling to hilly lands in east central Texas. Large post oak (Quercus stellata Wangenh.) blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica Munchh.), Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) and honey mesquite (Juniperus virginiana L.) usually form the overstory, often above thickets of yaupon (Ilex vomitoria), winged elm (Ulmus alata), gum bumelia (Sideroxylon lanuginosum Michx. Subsp. Oblongifolium (Nutt) T.D. Penn.), and live oak (Quercus virginiana Mill.). Historically limited to rocky hillsides and draws (Owens and Ansley 1997), these species have migrated over the last several hundred years into bottomlands where grasses once dominated, and the increase in abundance and range has fluctuated due to both the modification of the historic fire regime and overgrazing (Smeins and Fuhlendorf 1997).

The primary focus of previous fire studies in the Post Oak Savannah have been ignition time, mortality rate and the effect of burning to the understory vegetation, not standing shrub biomass estimation. Biomass estimation equations developed in different regions may not be applicable to the Post Oak Savannah since these substitutions may result in substantial error (Grier and Milne 1981, Gottfried and Severson 1994). With better prediction equations for this region with an increasing Urban-Wildfire Interface, managers can more accurately estimate the potential severity of wildfires or the effects of prescribed burns (Martin et al. 1978).

Biomass estimation methods that involve juniper species have focused on Pinyon-Juniper (Pinus edulis and Juniperus spp.) and overstory-understory interactions in the western states. Schnell (1976) developed biomass prediction equations tables for eastern redcedar in Georgia, Alabama Tennessee and Virginia, that required diameters at breast height (DBH) > 12.7 cm. Clark et al. (1986) and Phillips (1981) developed equations for estimating post oak biomass in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, using DBH and total height; Phillips (1981) also age, but neither included foliage. Common in both studies was a DBH > 15.2 cm and total height as independent variables. There is little biomass estimation information available for gum bumelia, although Bryant and Kothmann (1979) suggested a quadratic equation might work best.

The objective of this study was to develop regression models to predict the total above-ground biomass for three species commonly found in Post Oak Savannah plant communities.

Comments

Oswald, Brian P., R. R. Botting, Dean W. Coble, and Ken W. Farrish. "Aboveground biomass estimation for three common woody species in the post oak savannah of Texas." Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 34, no. 2 (2010): 91-94.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/saf/sjaf/2010/00000034/00000002/art00006

Southern Journal of Applied Forestry

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/saf/sjaf;jsessionid=w5xi91obr9g5.alexandra

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