The Mighty Oak V's The Beautiful beech

[Bundle 2]

Oh...and I absolutely love the helical Beech shot !

[Bundle 2]

Marcesence

 

Abscission and Marcescence in the Woods Audubon Guides

 

If wind is the vector, surely it will result in displacement of litter to a another site?

You learn something new everyday eh! Cheers

[Bundle 2]

Oak( pendunculate & sessile) Willow species. Birch Hawthorn

Blackthorn Poplar species (incl. aspen) Crab apple Scots pine Alder Elm Hazel Beech Ash Spruce Lime Hornbeam Rowan Maple Juniper Larch Fir Sycamore Holly Sweet chestnut Horse chestnut Yew Walnut Holm oak Plane

 

284 266 229 149 109 97 93 91 90 82 73 64 41 37 31 28 28 26 20 17 16 15 7

5 4 4 4 2 1

 

Invertebrate numbers associated with tree species-RESPECTIVELY

 

(good luck working that out but you get the idea)

[David Humphries]

Ahhhh, poor old Mr Plane invert, must be awfully lonely

 

 

 

 

 

Useful stats Tim

 

 

 

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[Arborowen]

I hope this thread progresses enough to convince you otherwise, dont underestimate the mighty beech!

 

no tree can fall apart like a beech! thats why Beech gets my vote! Beech, often the purveyor of the more spectacular faults/fungal activity.

[Bundle 2]

Oaks are better at locking up carbon though.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The one thing that our good man Bundle has not allowed for is bugs that specialise on fruit bodies of fungi, fungi are where beech enter a legue of thier own!

 

im a long way from having full grasp of this detail, (as is the scientific community) but like i said im a long way from finished with this one.

 

I would also say that it would seem highly unlikely that beech are not native as previously suggested, and like others believe they where here, confined to the far south of england and cut off when the land bridge dissapeared. There is just too much complex life that lives within the ancient beechwoods to be "new"

[Bundle 2]

Agreed...I nearly spit my dummy on hearing tell that beech are not native to a site in the SW.....If not, this must be down to a regional and confined variation....

There are indeed communities that rely on fruit bodies...I would hazard a guess that it is very specialised...The occurrence of the FB alone will not satisfy a "Lifecycle" which needs it's host to be in the kind of condition that will persist long enough and with the same , stable, habitat provision that initiates the association...

These communities are very fussy. I am told you can spend a lifetime perhaps, searching under one guise or another,( perhaps as an ecological surveyor) and never actually see the invertebrates you seek....JUst evidence of habitation.

Sadly, I suspect you may find the numbers disappoint Hama.But the jury is certainly not in!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Sadly, I suspect you may find the numbers disappoint Hama.But the jury is certainly not in!

 

Ive discovered MANY creatures within brackets, some I ahve since found are known, this is an interesting area to study, one that is so niche and specialised as to probably only be a handfull of folk worldwide that have any real ideas on the subject, so you telling me i may be dissapointed does not worry me at all:001_tt2:

 

In time my good man, in time.

[Bundle 2]

Its specialism linked with strict condition "conditions" dictates that numbers of species will be low associated with beech/fungal fruiting. This is an inescapable truth about "niche" exploitation...Its not as simple as "lots of fungi=lots of entymological assoc's" - At least that's how I read the logical succession of argument.

The one point I think you raise however that most likely will be worthy of speculation is the interelationships between species....It is not necessarily a deal breaker if fewer species are linked with the beech if those species prove crucial in a sequence of events to what is a legacy of significant proportions...