FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Quercus velutina | Black Oak 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Black oak is moderately resistant to fire [11].  Small black oaks are
easily top-killed by fire but sprout vigorously from the root crown
[56].  Larger black oaks can withstand low-severity surface fire because
of moderately thick basal bark.  They are susceptible to basal wounding
[11].

The prevalent presettlement upland oak forests in the eastern and
central United States were associated with recurring fire.  These
forests probably burned at an intermediate frequency (50 to 100 year
intervals) which promoted the dominance and stability of oak [1].  Fire
provides opportunity for establishment of the more fire-resistant oak
species such as black oak [34].  Black oak is characteristic as a
community dominant only where major disturbances periodically open the
canopy [25].  In dry black oak savannas in Illinois and Wisconsin, an
age analysis of black oaks showed that recruitment of the oaks to the
canopy was related to distinct events, most likely fire.  Fire top-kills
the mesic hardwood understory and allows oak sprouts to compete
successfully [5].

Oak-hickory forest floors are usually not conducive to high-severity
fires, but fires are easily ignited.  The total forest floor fuelbed
weight in a 20-year-old stand of black oak in southeast Missouri
averaged 6.4 tons per acre (14.3 t/ha), 2.0 tons per acre (4.8 t/ha) of
which was loose leaf litter.  Forty-year-old stands averaged 8.3 tons of
forest floor per acre (18.6 t/ha), including 2.9 tons per acre (6.5
t/ha) of loose litter [13].

Because of the reduction in wildfire frequency, oak-hickory forests are
converting to more mixed mesophytic stands.  Fifty-five years after a
late summer fire in south-central Connecticut, the burned area had
higher absolute and relative amounts of oak (black, white, scarlet,
chestnut, and northern red) than the adjacent unburned area [65].  In
Indiana, late successional species (red maple, sassafras, and blackgum)
were present in a black oak-dominated community in Indiana where fire
had been suppressed.  In an adjacent but remote black oak community,
late successional species were not present because fires burned longer
before being noticed and suppressed.  In the more frequently burned
area, overstory trees were rarely killed by fire, and an open understory
was maintained.  Where infrequent, fires killed larger trees and
promoted the formation of an understory thicket [25].

Black oak is restricted from the pine-scrub oak communities of the New
Jersey Pine Barrens because it does not produce viable seed at a young
enough age to become established in areas that burn every 8 to 12 years
[37].


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Tree with adventitious-bud root crown/root sucker

Related categories for Species: Quercus velutina | Black Oak