Forest Development Stages Processes

Stand-initiating disturbance

DLC

Legacy Creation

DLC

Colonization/germination

Pre-Forest

Vegetative growth of surviving plants or plants parts (rhizomes, root, stumps)

Pre-Forest

Establishment of plants from off- and on-site resources

Pre-Forest

Transition & replacement of annuals & perennials

Pre-Forest

Continuous regeneration & establishment of a new cohort until all growing space is occupied

SI

Initially, no competitive interaction among trees; maximum growth

SI

Rapid recovery of many ecosystem functions

SI

Canopy/crown closure by tree layer

YFS

recruitment slows, light becomes scarce

YFS

Changes in environment conditions and biodiversity

YFS

Near complete competitive exclusion, tree recruitment stops

YFS

Gradual emergence of closed-tree canopy patches

YFS

Strong or eclusive competitive tree dominance following closed forest or tree patch

YFS

Shading, death, and self-pruning of lower branches

YFS

Onset of increasing intensity of competition among trees, growth slows

YFS

Stand/crown differentiation and species dominance

YFS

Competition for light & soil resources

YFS

Density dependent competitive mortality, natural self-thinning may occur in pulses

YFS

Lower canopy tree loss

YFS

Development of larger trees, elimination of understory

YFS

Small gaps close fast (crown expansion by neighbors)

YFS

Highest rate of primary productivity, biomass accumulation, and rapid stand growth

YFS

Ongoing self-thinning plus density-independent mortality (wind, disease, insects), CWD generation

MFS

Canopy gap initiation & expansion

MFS

Establishment and expansion or redevelopment or proliferation of understory plant populations

MFS

Successful recruitment, establishment, growth of shade-tolerant advance tree reproduction in the understory

MFS

Sexual maturity & seed production of pioneer cohort

MFS

Epicormic or other adventitious branch systems form

MFS

Release of supressed trees that enter main canopy

MFS

Shift from competitive to agent-based non-competitive mortality in dominant and codominant trees

MFS

Maintain moderate to high levels of productivity beyond culmination of mean annual increment

MFS

declining mass of coarse woody material

MFS

canopy elaboration/stratification

MFS

Tree vigor declines

TOFS

Large canopy trees established during SI stage begin to die as they reach the end of their lifespan

TOFS

Canopy Gap extension

TOFS

Transition from even to uneven-aged stand

TOFS

Functionally and structurally most complex stage

OFS

Forests are not static climax forests

OFS

Uprooting & snapping of large trees

OFS

Accumulation of OM

OFS

Continue to have high levels of gross productivity

OFS

Agent-generated mortality of overstory & intermediate-sized trees provide continuous input of large snags & logs

OFS

Development of live tree decadence

OFS