Research Interests

• Natural regeneration of hardwood and conifer systems
• Ecology and management of oak dominated forests
• Relationship between forest canopy structure and the understory environment
• Influence of forest structure on the development of natural and artificial seedling reproduction
• Silvicultural implications of invasive plants
• Development of continuous cover silvicultural systems
• Restoration of forest communities
• Quantification of size-density relationships in single and mixed species stands
• Influence of vertical and horizontal forest structure on tree crown architecture
• Impact of species composition and canopy structure on stand growth and development
• Applications of Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) in management, research, and education

Selected Publications

• Lhotka, John M. and Edward F. Loewenstein. 2008. An examination of species-specific growing space utilization. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 38(3): 470-479.

• Lhotka, John M. and Edward F. Loewenstein. 2008. Influence of canopy structure on the survival and growth of underplanted seedlings. New Forests. 35(1): 89-104.

• Lhotka, John M. and Edward F. Loewenstein. 2006. Indirect measures of predicting light transmittance along a gradient of riparian forest canopy structures. Forest Ecology and Management. 226: 310-318.  

• Lhotka, John M. and James J. Zaczek. 2003. Soil scarification effects on initial establishment of oak reproduction within two mixed-oak bottomland stands in southern Illinois. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry. 27(3): 164-171.
  

• Lhotka, John M. and James J. Zaczek. 2003. Effects of scarification disturbance on the seedling and midstory layer in a successional mixed-oak forest. Northern Journal of Applied Forestry. 20(2): 85-91.