KUCHLER TYPE
KUCHLER TYPE: Oak-hickory forest



KUCHLER-TYPE-NUMBER : 
K100

PHYSIOGNOMY : 
Medium tall to tall broadleaf forests [51].  Also, open woodlands with
prairie forbs and shrubs in the understory.

Typical deciduous trees on mesic, fairly rich soils are a maximum of 83
to 100 feet (25-30 m) tall with a nearly closed canopy.  Trunk diameters
may range up to 5 feet (1.5 m).  There is usually a well developed
shrub-sapling layer, but the herb and moss layer is variable, and is
usually less than 100 percent cover [44].  Most deciduous forests have
five well-developed vertical strata:  the uppermost dense canopy, an
open subcanopy of immature trees and mature small trees (such as
flowering dogwood [Cornus florida] and eastern redbud [Cercis
canadensis]), a shrub layer, an herb layer, and a surface layer of
mosses and lichens [97].

This write-up includes some information on transitional vegetation
(savanna) occurring at the interface between oak (Quercus spp.)-hickory
(Carya spp.) forest and tallgrass prairie.  United States Public Land
Survey notes (1835) described these areas as "barrens."  There is very
little agreement, however, on what constitutes a barren and the term
should be avoided [69].  Much debate continues over the degree to which
oak savanna is "natural" [60,72]; however, most agree that it is a
fire-dependent type (a fire disclimax that is stable over time given
periodic fire).  Clark [20] has suggested that closed oak-hickory forest
is an artifact of fire suppression.  Prairie and woodland burning by Native
Americans had a great deal of influence on the extent and character of
vegetation in the prairie-forest contact region, and in the eastern
deciduous forest.  The degree to which this activity altered the natural
fire regime is largely unresolved [2,15].


OCCURRENCE : 
Oak-hickory forests occur in the central United States, ranging from
central Iowa east to southern Michigan and south to Texas.  These
forests are extensive in some states, and have only local occurrences in
others.  In the Southeast, oak-hickory forests are a major type in
Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee and extend into Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana [15].

In the Southeast, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, there
were approximately 1 million square miles (26 million sq km) of unbroken
forest.  By 1865, 65 percent of the surface area was forested; by 1923,
less than 260,000 square miles (676,000 sq km) were left in
second-growth merchantable timber [15].

The U.S. Forest Service indicated that there were 36.3 million acres
(14.5 million ha) of oak-hickory forest in the north-central states in
1972 (this included Kuchler types 81, 82, 84, 89, 100, and 104) [64].

Oak savannas were an important feature of the midwestern landscape prior
to European settlement.  Nuzzo [69] estimated that at the time of
settlement oak savanna covered some 28.6 to 33.8 million acres (11-13
million ha) of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois,
Indiana, and Ohio.  This estimate includes savannas occurring in
Kuchler's oak-savanna (K081), oak-hickory forest (K100), and within the
area mapped as bluestem (Andropogon and Schizachyrium spp.)
prairie-oak-hickory mosaic (K082).  There is some evidence that savannas
existed in eastern Nebraska prior to settlement, some in areas
previously thought to be exclusively tallgrass prairie [79].  Betz [8]
estimated that presettlement savanna and associated sand prairie in
Indiana covered 1.68 million acres (647,000 ha).  Today only remnants of
these types exist, most of which have been degraded due to various
disturbances such as grazing and altered fire regime [7].  In 1985, 113
sites totaling 6,439 acres (2,607 ha) of relatively high-quality oak
savanna remained, approximately 0.02 percent of the original extent.
All but 100 acres (40 ha) were on sandy, rocky, or similarly droughty
substrates [69].
  
STATES:  AL, AR, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MS, MO, NE, OH, OK, TN, TX


COMPILED BY AND DATE : 
Janet Sullivan, 1995


LAST REVISED BY AND DATE : 
NO-ENTRY


AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION : 
Sullivan, Janet. 1995. Oak-hickory forest. In: Remainder of Citation


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