We assessed the adaptive potential of seed and leaf phenology in 10 natural populations of sessile oak (Quercus petraea) sampled along two altitudinal transects using common garden experiments. Population differentiation for both phenological traits was observed with high-altitude populations germinating and flushing later than low altitude ones. However, high genetic variation and heritability...

The relationships between foliar weight/leaf area and four stem dimensions (dbh, total stem cross-sectional area, total sapwood area, and current sapwood area at breast height) were investigated in two important bottomland tree species of the southern United States, cherrybark oak (Quercus falcata var. pagodifolia EN.) and green ash (fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.). In all models tested and for ...

Studies of the effects of logging on Lepidoptera rarely address landscape-level effects or effects on larval, leaf-feeding stages. We examined the impacts of uneven-aged and even-aged logging on the abundance, richness, and community structure of leaf-chewing insects of white (Quercus alba L.) and black (Q. velutina L.) oak trees remaining in unharvested areas by sampling 3 years before and 7 y...

An afforestation system which utilizes the pioneer species eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh.) as a nurse for slower growing, disturbance-dependent species is under evaluation as a forest rehabilitation tool on former agricultural land in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley, USA. The primary objectives of this study were to quantify understory light availability in t...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Epidermal phenolic compounds (mainly flavonoids) constitute a vital screen that protects the leaf from damage by natural ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The effectiveness of epidermal UV-screening depends on leaf anatomy, the content of UV-screening compounds and their spatial uniformity over the leaf area. To investigate in vivo the spatial pattern of the epidermal UV-screen du...

Attachment of conidia on leaves is a critical first step in the life cycle of aquatic hyphomycetes in streams. In a first series of microcosm experiments, attachment success of three common aquatic hyphomycete species differing in conidial shape (compact, filiform and tetraradiate) was determined on two leaf species, black alder and downy oak. Fungal species identity and leaf surface structure ...

Leaves of oak trees are often infected by various pathogenic fungi. As it is difficult to remove such organisms quantitatively from the leaf surface and as it is often impossible to grow these organisms independently from their host, there are almost no molecular data available from these oak leaf specific pathogens. For the quantitative removal of the microorganisms a procedure was developed c...

Leaves constitute a substantial fraction of the total resistance to water flow through plants. A key question is how hydraulic resistance within the leaf is distributed among petiole, major veins, minor veins, and the pathways downstream of the veins. We partitioned the leaf hydraulic resistance (R(leaf)) for sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and red oak (Quercus rubra) by measuring the resistance t...