Regeneration of oak and rowan was found to be significantly clumped although not significantly dependent on distance from the seed source. Rowan is primarily dispersed through ingestion by birds, particularly various thrush species (Raspe et al., 2000), while oak relies on hoarding by both birds and mammals but especially Garrulus glandarius (jay) and Apodemus sylvaticus (wood mouse) (Forget et al., 2004), both of which occur at the study sites. The distribution of regenerating saplings will therefore be partly controlled by the behaviour of the dispersing animal. Previous work in central Europe has demonstrated that the majority of oak regeneration occurs within 100 m of a seed source and declines rapidly at greater distances (Mirschel et al., 2011). However, our findings are in contrast to previous work carried out in lowland sites in the UK that found positive relationships between the number of oak seedlings and distance to parent trees but no significant effect for birch seedlings (Harmer et al., 2005), possibly indicating differences between the shelterwood examined by Harmer et al. (2005) and the more extensive clearfells that we considered.
seed source
majority of oak regeneration
within 100 m
m