Oak regeneration at the arid boundary of the temperate deciduous forest biome: insights from a seeding and watering experiment

Previous studies found that pedunculate oak, one of the most widespread and abundant species in European deciduous forests, regenerates in open habitats and forest edges, but not in closed forest interiors. However, these observations usually come from the core areas of the biome, and much less is known about such processes at its arid boundary, where limiting factors may be different. In a full factorial field experiment, we tested the effects of different habitats (grassland, forest edge, forest interior) and increased growing season precipitation on the early regeneration of pedunculate oak in a forest-steppe ecosystem in Central Hungary, at the arid boundary of temperate deciduous forests. In the grassland habitat, seedling emergence was very low, and no seedlings survived by the fourth year. In contrast, seedling emergence was high and similar at forest edges and forest interiors, and was not affected by water addition. Most seedlings survived until the fourth year, with no difference between forest edge and forest interior habitats in numbers, and only minor or transient differences in size. The lack of oak regeneration in the grassland differs from previous reports on successful oak regeneration in open habitats, and may be related to a shift from light limitation to other limiting factors, such as moisture or microclimatic extremes, when moving away from the core of the deciduous forest biome towards its arid boundary. The similar number and performance of seedlings in forest edges and forest interiors may also be related to the decreasing importance of light limitation.