Modeling the numerical relationships between chronic ambient sulphur dioxide exposures and tree growth

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.H. Legge ◽  
M. Nosal ◽  
S.V. Krupa

An exponential growth curve model was developed for Pinuscontorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm. × Pinusbanksiana Lamb, (lodgepole × jack pine) trees from basal area increment data collected from five ecologically analogous sampling locations (AI to AV) in the vicinity of a sulphur recovery sour gas processing plant emitting sulphur (S) gases (mainly SO2) in the West Whitecourt study area near the town of Whitecourt in west-central Alberta, Canada. The mean basal area increment growth declined by 1.2%, 1.4%, 0.8%, and 0.6% between 1959 and 1981 at sampling locations AI AII, AIII and AIV, respectively, in comparison to the reference sampling location, AV. Since 1974 there has been an increase in wood production at the impacted sites, AI to AIV. This was most likely the result of the significant and progressive reductions in total sulphur gas emissions from 1963 to 1981, of 58 403 to 6782 t S/year, respectively. A multivariate nonlinear, polynomial Fourier regression model was applied to explain the relationships between the ambient SO2 exposures at the five sampling locations and changes in pine tree basal area increment growth. The regression model included the ambient SO2 exposure parameters: (1) number of episodes (an episode is equivalent to single or successive occurrences of 0.5-h mean concentrations of ≥10 ppb); (2) cumulative integral of exposures (concentration with respect to time); and (3) peak episodal concentrations. The model parameters were estimated using the least squares approach. The MPF regression model captured the actual effects of the episodicity of SO2 exposures on radial tree growth of pine species and provided a high degree of forecasting power because of the use of the integral of the SO2 exposures. Peak episodal SO2 concentrations or the number of episodes appeared not to play as important a role in the model as the integral.

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 728-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
R P Brockley

The effects of nitrogen (N) fertilizer, alone and in combination with different sources and rates of sulphur (S), on foliar nutrients and tree growth are reported over 3 and 6 years, respectively. After 3 years, foliar S levels in the N+S treatments were significantly higher than those in N-only treatments at all six study locations. Temporal patterns of foliar S response varied significantly with S source. When applied as ammonium sulphate (AS), foliar levels increased sharply in year 1 and slowly declined over the next 2 years. Conversely, additions of elemental S (S0), in the form of S0 – sodium bentonite fertilizer, usually did not increase foliar S concentration in year 1, but had increasingly positive effects on foliar S in years 2 and 3. An increase in the S application rate from 50 to 100 kg/ha resulted in only a modest improvement in foliar S concentration for both S sources. Differences in individual-tree basal area increment between N and N+S treatments were statistically significant in only two of six trials. Prefertilization levels of foliar N and sulphate S, and probable induced deficiencies of nonadded nutrients following N fertilization, largely explained basal area and height responses to N and N+S additions at the six study sites. Despite delayed oxidation, S0 was as effective as the more readily available AS in stimulating radial growth after 6 years. However, the relative effectiveness of S source varied with S application rate in two trials. In both cases, basal area increment was positively related to application rate when S was applied as AS. Conversely, the effect of application rate was distinctly negative when S0 was applied. Despite large differences in short-term availability of AS and S0, the results from this study support the conclusion that the two S sources are likely equally effective in alleviating S deficiencies and in promoting tree growth of S-deficient lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.).


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 249 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Riofrío ◽  
Miren del Río ◽  
Douglas Maguire ◽  
Felipe Bravo

Models that incorporate known species-mixing effects on tree growth are essential tools to properly design silvicultural guidelines for mixed-species stands. Here, we developed generalized height–diameter (h-d) and basal area growth models for mixed stands of two main forest species in Spain: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.). Mixed-effects models were fitted from plot measurement and tree rings data from 726 Scots pine and 693 Maritime pine trees from mixed and pure stands in the Northern Iberian Range in Spain, with the primary objective of representing interactions between the species where they are interspersed in mixtures of varying proportions. An independent dataset was used to test the performance of the h-d models against models previously fitted for monospecific stands of both species. Basal area increment models were evaluated using a 10-fold block cross-validation procedure. We found that species mixing had contrasting effects on the species in both models. In h-d models, the species-mixing proportion determined the effect of species interactions. Basal area growth models showed that interspecific competition was influential only for Maritime pine; however, these effects differed depending on the mode of competition. For Scots pine, tree growth was not restricted by interspecies competition. The combination of mixed-effect models and the inclusion of parameters expressing species-mixing enhanced estimates of tree height and basal area growth compared with the available models previously developed for pure stands. Although the species-mixing effects were successfully represented in the fitted models, additional model components for accurately simulating the stand dynamics of mixtures with Scots pine and Maritime pine and other species mixtures require similar model refinements. Upon the completion of analyses required for these model refinements, the degree of improvement in simulating growth in species mixtures, including the effects of different management options, can be evaluated.


2008 ◽  
Vol 159 (10) ◽  
pp. 352-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Zingg ◽  
Anton Bürgi

Drought during the vegetation period has en effect on tree growth. Using daily precipitation data and growth records from long-term research plots, we investigated what can be defined as “drought” and how strong its effect is. Dry or humid periods are defined as the deviation from the long-term daily mean of precipitation. Such periods must last at least 60 days to be considered as being decisive for tree growth. The drought values are used together with other site and stand parameters as explaining variables in a model for the basal area increment for Norway spruce (Picea abies [L] H. Karst.), silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and oak (Quercus L), based on data from long-term growth and yield plots which are located in the neighbourhood of precipitation measurement stations. These models explain 55 to 89% of the variance. In drought situations basal area increment drops clearly for spruce and beech, for fir only weakly and oak shows no reaction. Furthermore, we checked if there happened additional or compulsory felling after drought periods and if the basal area growth changed significantly compared to the growth in the period before. For both it is not the case, despite distinct drought periods in the last century, especially in the 40s with the extreme year of 1947. Therefore we do not expect dramatic changes for the investigated species in similar drought situations under the prerequisite that the other conditions do not change essentially.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Noonan-Wright ◽  
Sharon M. Hood ◽  
Danny R. Cluck

Abstract Mortality and reduced growth rates due to raking accumulated basal duff were evaluated for old, large-diameter ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees on the Lassen National Forest, California. No fire treatments were included to isolate the effect of raking from fire. Trees were monitored annually for 5 years after the raking treatment for mortality and then cored to measure basal area increment. Results showed that raking basal duff and litter to mineral soil from the bole out to 60 cm had no effect on basal area increment or mortality for 5 years posttreatment. Results are pertinent to managers who question whether raking basal duff will decrease tree vigor or increase tree mortality of large and old ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees in northern California.


2013 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Kaźmierczak

Abstract The study presents the results of an analysis of the pine tree growth increments (height increment, dbh increment, basal area increment and volume increment) for a 5-year period. The study involved Scots pine trees of Kraft’s class 1, 2 and 3 (dominant stand) in stands of different age classes (II, III, V) growing in fresh mixed coniferous (BMśw) and fresh coniferous (Bśw) forest habitats. The multivariate analysis of variance was performed to assess the statistical significance of age and dominance of trees within a stand on their increment. The dominance position was classified for each tree using Kraft’s criteria. The following characteristic were also measured: dbh of the trunk in two directions (N-S and W-E), and crown projection area on the basis of the characteristic tree crown points, projected using of a crown projector, characteristic points in tree crowns (7 to 14 on average). The actual height was determined after trees were felled. The following measurements of the single tree growing space were selected and determined: crown projection area - pk (m2), crown diameter - dk (m), Seebach’s growth space number - dk / d1.3, crown projection area to basal area ratio d 2 k / d 2 1.3, crown deflection coefficient dk / h, single tree space ppd = pk·h (m3). We assessed the strength of the relationships between tree growth parameters and tree growth space, crown length, relative crown length and slenderness. Both the age and dominance position of trees within the stand affected the growth increments. The strongest correlation among measured traits was between the 5-year volume increment and decreasing slenderness.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Tamalika Chakraborty ◽  
Albert Reif ◽  
Andreas Matzarakis ◽  
Somidh Saha

European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees are becoming vulnerable to drought, with a warming climate. Existing studies disagree on how radial growth varies in European beech in response to droughts. We aimed to find the impact of multiple droughts on beech trees’ annual radial growth at their ecological drought limit created by soil water availability in the forest. Besides, we quantified the influence of competition and canopy openness on the mean basal area growth of beech trees. We carried out this study in five near-natural temperate forests in three localities of Germany and Switzerland. We quantified available soil water storage capacity (AWC) in plots laid in the transition zone from oak to beech dominated forests. The plots were classified as ‘dry’ (AWC < 60 mL) and ‘less-dry’ (AWC > 60 mL). We performed dendroecological analyses starting from 1951 in continuous and discontinuous series to study the influence of climatic drought (i.e., precipitation-potential evapotranspiration) on the radial growth of beech trees in dry and less-dry plots. We used observed values for this analysis and did not use interpolated values from interpolated historical records in this study. We selected six drought events to study the resistance, recovery, and resilience of beech trees to drought at a discontinuous level. The radial growth was significantly higher in less-dry plots than dry plots. The increase in drought had reduced tree growth. Frequent climatic drought events resulted in more significant correlations, hence, increased the dependency of tree growth on AWC. We showed that the recovery and resilience to climatic drought were higher in trees in less-dry plots than dry plots, but it was the opposite for resistance. The resistance, recovery, and resilience of the trees were heterogeneous between the events of drought. Mean growth of beech trees (basal area increment) were negatively impacted by neighborhood competition and positively influenced by canopy openness. We emphasized that beech trees growing on soil with low AWC are at higher risk of growth decline. We concluded that changes in soil water conditions even at the microsite level could influence beech trees’ growth in their drought limit under the changing climate. Along with drought, neighborhood competition and lack of light can also reduce beech trees’ growth. This study will enrich the state of knowledge about the ongoing debate on the vulnerability of beech trees to drought in Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 597-614
Author(s):  
Shanoli Samui Pal ◽  
Samarjit Kar

In this paper, fuzzified Choquet integral and fuzzy-valued integrand with respect to separate measures like fuzzy measure, signed fuzzy measure and intuitionistic fuzzy measure are used to develop regression model for forecasting. Fuzzified Choquet integral is used to build a regression model for forecasting time series with multiple attributes as predictor attributes. Linear regression based forecasting models are suffering from low accuracy and unable to approximate the non-linearity in time series. Whereas Choquet integral can be used as a general non-linear regression model with respect to non classical measures. In the Choquet integral based regression model parameters are optimized by using a real coded genetic algorithm (GA). In these forecasting models, fuzzified integrands denote the participation of an individual attribute or a group of attributes to predict the current situation. Here, more generalized Choquet integral, i.e., fuzzified Choquet integral is used in case of non-linear time series forecasting models. Three different real stock exchange data are used to predict the time series forecasting model. It is observed that the accuracy of prediction models highly depends on the non-linearity of the time series.


2015 ◽  
Vol 166 (6) ◽  
pp. 380-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Weber ◽  
Caroline Heiri ◽  
Mathieu Lévesque ◽  
Tanja Sanders ◽  
Volodymyr Trotsiuk ◽  
...  

Growth potential and climate sensitivity of tree species in the ecogram for the colline and submontane zone In forestry practice a large amount of empirical knowledge exists about the productivity of individual tree species in relation to site properties. However, so far, only few scientific studies have investigated the influence of soil properties on the growth potential of various tree species along gradients of soil water as well as nutrient availability. Thus, there is a research gap to estimate the productivity and climate sensitivity of tree species under climate change, especially regarding productive sites and forest ad-mixtures in the lower elevations. Using what we call a «growth ecogram», we demonstrate species- and site-specific patterns of mean annual basal area increment and mean sensitivity of ring width (strength of year-to-year variation) for Fagus sylvatica, Quercus spp., Fraxinus excelsior, Picea abies, Abies alba and Pinus sylvestris, based on tree-ring data from 508 (co-)dominant trees on 27 locations. For beech, annual basal area increment ( average 1957–2006) was significantly correlated with tree height of the dominant sampling trees and proved itself as a possible alternative for assessing site quality. The fact that dominant trees of the different tree species showed partly similar growth potential within the same ecotype indicates comparable growth limitation by site conditions. Mean sensitivity of ring width – a measure of climate sensitivity – had decreased for oak and ash, while it had increased in pine. Beech showed diverging reactions with increasing sensitivity at productive sites (as measured by the C:N ratio of the topsoil), suggesting an increasing limitation by climate at these sites. Hence, we derive an important role of soil properties in the response of forests to climate change at lower elevations, which should be taken into account when estimating future forest productivity.


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