Forests are defined by competition above and below ground

Evidence

So the woods become to the initiate a moving story, a movement of centuries, a movement of leaves and the life that flies and runs and climbs among them, a movement of waters through the leaf mold and the soil, a constant movement of growth and struggle, of the fight of the treetops for sunlight or the struggle of the roots for water and minerals. One sees after awhile the movement of whole forests and the movement of what is called plant succession, when one kind of plant life takes the place of another as conditions change. — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 66

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names ‘plant succession’ — one plant community replacing another — the key disturbance-response concept for the assignment’s interpretation of plant communities.
• XREF: connects to: The same disturbance-diversity dynamics governing forest trees also structure moss communities on logs — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 371; Direct competition experiments reveal interspecies dominance obscured in the field — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 294; Primary species win by persisting under closed canopy rather than growing fast in gaps — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 467 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• The same disturbance-diversity dynamics governing forest trees also structure moss communities on logs #expands (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 371
• Direct competition experiments reveal interspecies dominance obscured in the field #expands (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 294
• Interspecific competition restricts species to disturbances where their growth efficiency is highest #expands (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1332
• Plowed fields generate surface rocks each spring while forests do not #expands (0.85) — Tom Wessels, Forest Forensics, 80
• Forest sound propagation depends on ground porosity, scattering, and foliage absorption #expands (0.85) — Donald G. Albert, Michelle E. Swearingen, Frank E. Perron, and David L. Carbee, Low Frequency Acoustic Pulse…, 22
• Firebreaks structured which species occupied which landscape positions #expands (0.85) — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 2
• Shrubland diversity arises from varied disturbance rather than a single optimum #complicates (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 672
• Leaf arrangement in layers sets which light regime favors a tree species #expands (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1318
• Forest structure reshapes sound propagation, affecting animal communication and sensor performance #expands (0.85) — Donald G. Albert, Michelle E. Swearingen, Frank E. Perron, and David L. Carbee, Low Frequency Acoustic Pulse…, 19
• Topography-driven wind patterns skew treefall frequency and thus species abundance locally #expands (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 472
• Symmetrical competition makes disturbance-diversity peaks unpredictable #expands (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1006
• Severe disturbance plus low resource base can reduce species richness #expands (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2259
• Primary species win by persisting under closed canopy rather than growing fast in gaps #complicates (0.80) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 467
• Tree-fall gaps let young trees establish that dense forest shade otherwise prevents #complicates (0.75) — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 129
• Understory roughness governs forest reverberation more than season #complicates (0.75) — Donald G. Albert, Michelle E. Swearingen, Frank E. Perron, and David L. Carbee, Low Frequency Acoustic Pulse…, 107