Age and diameter structure of a managed uneven-aged oak forest

We studied the age and diameter structure on one section (259 ha) of a 63 000-ha privately owned forest in the Ozark Highlands of Missouri. The forest has been managed using a partial cutting strategy since 1954. Because a majority of the trees predate current management practices, the existing stand structure is a function of not only the current silvicultural system and the dynamics of this ecosystem but also the initial stand conditions. To determine age structure and evaluate the relationship of diameter and age, a random sample of 600 oaks >4 cm DBH were collected from ten 0.4-ha plots. Based on the test of a binomial proportion, the oak populations on 7 of the 10 plots were deemed uneven aged, two were deemed two aged, and one was even aged. DBH accounted for 40 (red oaks) to 62% (white oaks) of the variation in tree age. Although the overall diameter frequency distribution of oaks formed a reverse-J shape, the age-frequency distribution approximated a normal (bell-shaped) distribution. We show how this apparent inconsistency between diameter and age distributions can be an artifact of a minimum sampling diameter. Such a truncation of the sampled population reduces the observed frequency of trees in the younger age-classes, which in turn results in a bell-shaped rather than a reverse-J-shaped age-frequency distribution. Thus, the lack of a reverse- J-shaped age distribution should not be interpreted as a failure to sustain regeneration in an uneven-aged stand.