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Quaking aspen: Difference between revisions
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Aspen stands provide ideal habitats for many organisms with a balanced amount of sunlight and shade. The forage beneath quaking aspens can be up to six times richer than that of a coniferous forest! Wildflowers, shrubs, small trees, and grasses thrive beneath aspen canopies. Quaking aspens are also important to around 500 species of organisms and animals. Leaves, bark, buds, and twigs are all food sources for bears, deer, elk, birds, and small rodents or mammals, especially in the winter months. Stands of aspens are a popular nesting places for birds, from cavity-nesters to ground nesters and canopy-nesters. [http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/Fall99Projects/aspen.htm] Aspens are susceptible to rot-producing fungi such as Shoestring Root that travels through the extensive root system and Aspen Trunk Rot. Cankers, like Sooty Bark Canker, can also infect and even kill quaking aspens. Leaf rollers, Leaf Miner Beetle, and Western Tent Caterpillars are some of the many insects that prey on aspen trees. [http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/trees/populustrem.html] Grazing animals like deer eat young aspens and can damage saplings by rubbing antlers against the bark. Small mammals such as mice also harm quaking aspens by stripping off the lower bark of the tree. [http://www.northern.edu/natsource/TREESA1/Quacki1.htm] | Aspen stands provide ideal habitats for many organisms with a balanced amount of sunlight and shade. The forage beneath quaking aspens can be up to six times richer than that of a coniferous forest! Wildflowers, shrubs, small trees, and grasses thrive beneath aspen canopies. Quaking aspens are also important to around 500 species of organisms and animals. Leaves, bark, buds, and twigs are all food sources for bears, deer, elk, birds, and small rodents or mammals, especially in the winter months. Stands of aspens are a popular nesting places for birds, from cavity-nesters to ground nesters and canopy-nesters. [http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/Fall99Projects/aspen.htm] Aspens are susceptible to rot-producing fungi such as Shoestring Root that travels through the extensive root system and Aspen Trunk Rot. Cankers, like Sooty Bark Canker, can also infect and even kill quaking aspens. Leaf rollers, Leaf Miner Beetle, and Western Tent Caterpillars are some of the many insects that prey on aspen trees. [http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/trees/populustrem.html] Grazing animals like deer eat young aspens and can damage saplings by rubbing antlers against the bark. Small mammals such as mice also harm quaking aspens by stripping off the lower bark of the tree. [http://www.northern.edu/natsource/TREESA1/Quacki1.htm] | ||
== | == Forest Fire == | ||
Forest fires have both beneficial and detrimental effects on quaking aspen trees. A small fire may damage the thin bark and allow funus to enter the tree, and a larger fire and kill the tree completely. [http://www.northern.edu/natsource/TREESA1/Quacki1.htm] Fortunately, aspens are not easily burned and are sometimes called "asbestos trees." Wildfires clear the land and put nutrients back into the soil. This is very beneficial to quaking aspens because the open sunlight and mineral-rich soil is exposed for growth. Their recovery from fire is very rapid, having the advantage of being a clonal species. [http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/Fall99Projects/aspen.htm] The surviving root systems send up many new sprouts several years following a fire. They feed off of the larger root system, and an entire stand of quaking aspens can be produced within a decade following a fire. Forest fires remove shady canopies that hinder aspen growth and blackens the soil, which increases the heat absorption and aids the production of sprouts. Quaking aspens are also self-thinning, which means that they do not grow too densely after a fire. Even though aspens have thin bark, they resist fire because they tend to be surrounded by moist fuel, compared to the surrounding conifers. Quaking aspen groves act as natural firebreakers, and fire will sometimes pass them by in favor of drier trees. When an aspen is damaged by wildfire, it can recover and survive do to nutrients from the interconnected root system of healthy, untouched aspens nearby. [http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/trees/populustrem.html] Forest fires are necessary to quaking aspen growth because they allow them to outcompete taller and shadier trees, which would block out the sunlight and kill young aspen shoots. [http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/Fall99Projects/aspen.htm] | |||
== Gallery == | == Gallery == | ||
