# Emile S. Gardiner
Emile S. Gardiner is a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station, Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research in Stoneville, Mississippi.[1](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-7519) His research addresses the regeneration silviculture of broadleaf forests, seedling ecophysiology, and broadleaf forest restoration, with a particular focus on oaks (*Quercus* spp.) and on reestablishing bottomland hardwood forests on former agricultural land in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.[2](https://www.iufro.org/profiles/93085/gardiner)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position | Research forester, USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, Stoneville, MS[3](https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf) |
| Doctorate | Ph.D. in Forestry, Mississippi State University[1](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-7519) |
| Most cited recent work | 2019 Tamm Review on direct seeding to restore oak forests, about 78 citations (Crossref)[4](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.06.032) |
| Career output | About 115 works, 2,170 citations, h-index 27 |
| Research platform | Sharkey Restoration Research and Demonstration Site, a 1,700-acre former agricultural tract in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley[3](https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf) |
| Active through | Publications in 2024 and 2025[5](https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020226) • [6](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122721) |
## Education and career
Gardiner earned his Ph.D. in Forestry at [Mississippi State University](https://www.edgepedia.org/mississippi-state-university).[1](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-7519) His professional career has been based at the Southern Hardwoods Laboratory in Stoneville, Mississippi, within the Southern Research Station's Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, where he is listed as a research forester.[3](https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf) The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) records his specialties as regeneration silviculture of broadleaf forests, seedling ecophysiology, and broadleaf forest restoration.[2](https://www.iufro.org/profiles/93085/gardiner) Sources retrieved for this article do not document his undergraduate or master's training or the details of his progression within the Forest Service.
## Scientific contributions: oak physiology and regeneration
Gardiner's early experimental work examined how light and flooding shape oak seedling physiology. In a 2001 study in *Tree Physiology*, two-year-old cherrybark oak (*Quercus pagoda*) seedlings raised in full or partial (27%) sunlight were flooded for 30 days. Seedlings grown in partial sunlight developed leaves with 90% greater blade area and 35% lower nitrogen concentration per unit area, producing a 15% lower photosynthetic capacity on an area basis but a 15% greater capacity on a mass basis. Flooding increased leaf mass per unit area by more than 19%, reduced foliar nitrogen per unit dry mass by 19%, and reduced the light-saturated photosynthetic rate by up to 56% on an area basis.[7](https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/21.15.1103)
**Establishment methods** were tested in a 1997 field experiment at the Delta Experimental Forest near Stoneville, in which Nuttall oak, green ash, and persimmon seedlings received tree shelters and four weed-control treatments. Sheltered seedlings survived at 98% versus 93% without shelters and grew 43 centimeters in one season compared with 15 centimeters for unsheltered seedlings; fabric mat weed control produced the greatest height and diameter growth for nearly all species-treatment combinations.[8](https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/65881)
Later work extended to sprouting and to Europe. In a 2020 *New Forests* study, shoot-clipped germinants of white oak (*Q. alba*) and English oak (*Q. robur*) produced 29% more sprouts per plant under high light availability, and sprouts acclimated to high light with a 56% increase in leaf mass per area and a 49% increase in light-saturated photosynthesis.[9](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-019-09762-5) A companion 2020 experiment in *Ecology and Evolution* tested whether the North American fire–oak hypothesis applies to temperate European oaks (*Q. robur*, *Q. petraea*) using a replicated three-year field trial with contrasting canopy openness, ungulate fencing, and low-intensity surface fire. Canopy gaps increased oak relative height growth (p = .034), protection from browsing showed positive trends for growth and survival, and burning reduced survival (p < .001), though survival remained 54% to 92% across treatment combinations because most burned oaks were top-killed but survived by sprouting.[10](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6092)
## The 2019 Tamm Review on direct seeding
Gardiner's most cited recent work is the 2019 Tamm Review in *Forest Ecology and Management*, "Direct seeding to restore oak (*Quercus* spp.) forests and woodlands," co-authored with Löf, Castro, Engman, Leverkus, Madsen, Reque, and Villalobos; it has about 78 citations per Crossref.[1](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-7519) • [4](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.06.032) The retrieved evidence includes only the bibliographic record of the paper, not its conclusions, so its specific recommendations cannot be summarized here. Its subject is grounded in Gardiner's long-running fieldwork: at the Sharkey site, early results showed the viability of low-cost techniques such as direct seeding oaks, as well as interplanting for rapid development of forest conditions.[3](https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf) For land managers, the practical comparison his Sharkey and Delta Experimental Forest work supports is between direct seeding, a lower-cost method tested at Sharkey, and planted seedlings, whose survival and growth respond strongly to tree shelters and weed control.[3](https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf) • [8](https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/65881)
## Restoration and carbon in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
In 1993, managers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a 1,700-acre agricultural tract available to scientists for bottomland hardwood ecosystem restoration research; this became the Sharkey Restoration Research and Demonstration Site in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley.[3](https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf) An earlier synthesis with John A. Stanturf, Paul B. Hamel, and others, "Restoring Bottomland Hardwood Ecosystems in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley" (*Journal of Forestry*, 2000, about 135 citations), is his most cited work overall.
His recent afforestation work quantifies carbon accumulation in restoration plantings. A 2022 paper in *Trees, Forests and People* provided aboveground biomass equations for black willow (*[Salix nigra](https://www.edgepedia.org/salix-nigra)*) and eastern cottonwood (*Populus deltoides*).[11](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100195) A ten-year experiment in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley tested four cottonwood spacing levels (3.7 × 3.7 m to (0.8 + 1.8) × 0.8 m) on degraded agricultural land. Mean annual increments of aboveground carbon peaked at about 7.5 Mg ha−1 per year in year 7 for the two tightest spacings, and year 10 carbon stocks ranged from 22.3 Mg ha−1 at the widest spacing to 70.1 Mg ha−1 at the densest.[5](https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020226) These results give restoration planners a quantitative basis for choosing planting density when climate mitigation is an objective.
## By the numbers
Several results illustrate the scale of his findings. Sheltered bottomland seedlings grew 43 cm in one season versus 15 cm unsheltered, a nearly threefold difference in the Delta Experimental Forest trial.[8](https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/65881) In the European fire trial, three-year oak survival stayed between 54% and 92% even where fire was applied.[10](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6092) Dense cottonwood plantings accumulated roughly three times the year-10 aboveground carbon of wide spacing (70.1 versus 22.3 Mg ha−1).[5](https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020226) Across his career, aggregated profiles count about 115 works, 2,170 citations, and an h-index of 27.
## Key publications
- **Tamm Review: Direct seeding to restore oak (*Quercus* spp.) forests and woodlands** (2019, *Forest Ecology and Management*). A global synthesis of direct seeding as an oak restoration method; about 78 citations per Crossref. The retrieved record does not include its abstract, so its detailed conclusions are not summarized here.[4](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.06.032)
- **Influence of canopy openness, ungulate exclosure, and low-intensity fire for improved oak regeneration in temperate Europe** (2020, *Ecology and Evolution*). A three-year replicated trial finding that gaps improved growth, fencing showed positive trends, and fire reduced survival while oaks resprouted; survival 54–92%. About 35 citations per Crossref.[10](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6092)
- **Photosynthetic light response of flooded cherrybark oak (*Quercus pagoda*) seedlings grown in two light regimes** (2001, *Tree Physiology*). Showed acclimation to shade on a mass basis and strong photosynthetic impairment under 30-day flooding. About 13 citations per iCite.[7](https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/21.15.1103)
- **Sprouts of shoot-clipped oak (*[Quercus alba](https://www.edgepedia.org/quercus-alba)* and *Q. robur*) germinants show morphological and photosynthetic acclimation to contrasting light environments** (2020, *New Forests*). Found 29% more sprouts per plant under high light, a response the authors note had not previously been reported for oak germinants. About 8 citations per Crossref.[9](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-019-09762-5)
- **Early Dynamics of Carbon Accumulation as Influenced by Spacing of a *Populus deltoides* Planting** (2024, *Forests*). Ten-year spacing trial; peak carbon increments about 7.5 Mg ha−1 per year and year-10 stocks 22.3–70.1 Mg ha−1. About 4 citations per Crossref.[5](https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020226)
- **Aboveground biomass equations for black willow (*Salix nigra* Marsh.) and eastern cottonwood (*Populus deltoides* Bartr. ex Marsh.)** (2022, *Trees, Forests and People*). Biomass estimation tools for restoration species. About 6 citations per Crossref.[11](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100195)
## References
1. Emile Gardiner (0000-0003-3589-7519), ORCID. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-7519
2. IUFRO profile: Emile S. Gardiner. https://www.iufro.org/profiles/93085/gardiner
3. Establishing a Research and Demonstration Area, Sharkey Restoration Research and Demonstration Site (USDA Forest Service). https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2008/ja_2008_gardiner_001.pdf
4. Tamm Review: Direct seeding to restore oak forests and woodlands, doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2019.06.032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.06.032
5. Early Dynamics of Carbon Accumulation as Influenced by Spacing of a *Populus deltoides* Planting, doi:10.3390/f15020226. https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020226
6. Effects of stand structural attributes on oak recruitment in mixed temperate forests, doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122721
7. Photosynthetic light response of flooded cherrybark oak seedlings, doi:10.1093/treephys/21.15.1103. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/21.15.1103
8. Methods to improve establishment and growth of bottomland hardwood artificial regeneration, USDA Forest Service Treesearch. https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/65881
9. Sprouts of shoot-clipped oak germinants, doi:10.1007/s11056-019-09762-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-019-09762-5
10. Influence of canopy openness, ungulate exclosure, and low-intensity fire, doi:10.1002/ece3.6092. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6092
11. Aboveground biomass equations for black willow and eastern cottonwood, doi:10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100195
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