scholarly journals Species Mixing Effects on Height–Diameter and Basal Area Increment Models for Scots Pine and Maritime Pine

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.

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Condés ◽  
Hubert Sterba ◽  
Ana Aguirre ◽  
Kamil Bielak ◽  
Andrés Bravo-Oviedo ◽  
...  

An increasing amount of research is focusing on comparing productivity in monospecific versus mixed stands, although it is difficult to reach a general consensus as mixing effects differ both in sign (over-yielding or under-yielding) and magnitude depending on species composition as well as on site and stand conditions. While long-term experimental plots provide the best option for disentangling the mixing effects, these datasets are not available for all the existing mixtures nor do they cover large gradients of site factors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects and uncertainties of tree species mixing on the productivity of Scots pine–European beech stands along the gradient of site conditions in Europe, using models developed from National and Regional Forest Inventory data. We found a positive effect of pine on beech basal area growth, which was slightly greater for the more humid sites. In contrast, beech negatively affected pine basal area growth, although the effects switched to positive in the more humid sites. However, the uncertainty analysis revealed that the effect on pine at mid- and more humid sites was not-significant. Our results agree with studies developed from a European transect of temporal triplets in the same pine–beech mixtures, confirming the suitability of these datasets and methodology for evaluating mixing effects at large scale.


2004 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lianjun Zhang ◽  
Changhui Peng ◽  
Qinglai Dang

Individual-tree models of five-year basal area growth were developed for jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) in northern Ontario. Tree growth data were collected from long-term permanent plots of pure and mixed stands of the two species. The models were fitted using mixed model methods due to correlated remeasurements of tree growth over time. Since the data covered a wide range of stand ages, stand conditions and tree sizes, serious heterogeneous variances existed in the data. Therefore, the coefficients of the final models were obtained using weighted regression techniques. The models for the two species were evaluated across 4-cm diameter classes using independent data. The results indicated (1) the models of jack pine and black spruce produced similar prediction errors and biases for intermediate-sized trees (12–28 cm in tree diameter), (2) both models yielded relatively large errors and biases for larger trees (> 28 cm) than those for smaller trees, and (3) the jack pine model produced much larger errors and biases for small-sized trees (< 12 cm) than did the black spruce model. Key words: mixed models, repeated measures, model validation


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 961-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica I Emhart ◽  
Timothy A Martin ◽  
Timothy L White ◽  
Dudley A Huber

We quantified basal area increment phenology over a 2-year period in one loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and four slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm. var. elliottii) full-sib families propagated as rooting cuttings. In 2002, basal area growth started in March and stopped in October for both species, while in 2003, initiation and cessation occurred 2 weeks earlier for all families. In both years, peaks in basal area increment occurred in short (2–3 week) periods in the early spring for all families, followed by linear basal area growth until cessation. While there were significant size differences among taxa (species and families) at age 6 and 7 years, genetic differences in basal area growth rate were only expressed during short, discrete time periods primarily in the spring and fall. Basal area growth rate increased during periods when water soil availability increased (up to 300 mm), but an excess in water availability in the soil had a negative impact on growth. Within-family individual-tree broad-sense heritabilities ranged from 0.01 to 0.37 for all traits. In general, heritabilities were higher for growth traits than for phenological traits for all families. Both the strength and direction of correlation estimates of phenological traits with growth rate varied across families and years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-600
Author(s):  
Kjersti Holt Hanssen ◽  
Johan Asplund ◽  
Nicholas Clarke ◽  
Ruben Selmer ◽  
Line Nybakken

Abstract We fertilized a Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) stand on rich mineral soil with 3 t ha−1 of wood ash (ASH), 150 kg ha−1 of nitrogen (N) or a combination of wood ash and nitrogen (ASH + N), in addition to unfertilized control plots. After five growing seasons, we remeasured the trees and took core samples. Current- and previous-year needles were sampled and analyzed for total nitrogen and carbon, low-molecular weight phenolics and condensed tannins. Annual volume increment and standing volume were significantly higher in the ASH + N treatment than in control plots after 5 years. N gave a significant positive effect on basal area growth in the third year, after which the effect diminished. The ASH + N treated trees, on the other hand, showed an increasing basal area growth trend throughout the period. ASH reduced the total concentration of low-molecular weight phenolic compounds significantly in current-year needles. Phenolic acids increased under both ASH and ASH + N, while flavonoids decreased significantly under the same treatments compared to N. By including annual growth rate before fertilization in the analyses, the effect of N-treatment on flavonoids was positive only in trees with higher growth rates, and in those trees the concentration was higher than in both ASH-treated plots and controls. An acetophenone, constituting more than half of the total low-molecular weight phenolics concentration, was strongly reduced under all fertilization treatments. These results demonstrate that in addition to effects on tree growth, fertilization of the forest floor also has a strong influence on other metabolic processes of trees, with potential implications for ecosystem functioning.


2016 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Perin ◽  
Hugues Claessens ◽  
Philippe Lejeune ◽  
Yves Brostaux ◽  
Jacques Hébert

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong-gang Sun ◽  
Jian-guo Zhang ◽  
Ai-guo Duan ◽  
Cai-yun He

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 11) ◽  
pp. 458-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Drössler ◽  
N. Fahlvik ◽  
B. Elfving

The paper addresses the problem of estimating future stand development in heterogeneously structured forests in Sweden; specifically, multi-layered spruce stands and mature pine stands with advanced spruce undergrowth. We first introduce various supporting concepts and models with their empirical databases, model validation and constraints. Secondly, Swedish single-tree growth functions designed for more heterogeneously structured forest are tested using data from inventory plots, a thinning experiment in an uneven-aged forest stand, and yield plots in pristine forest. Future growth of a managed, multi-layered forest was simulated and is compared with other selected functions. Simulation results, expected errors and time constraints are discussed. For most models, projected stand basal area growth deviated 10&ndash;20% from the observed growth in individual stands. In single stands, the deviation ranged from 0 to 60%. Validation periods were often 5&ndash;15 years, sometimes even more than 30 years. For Swedish single-tree basal area growth functions, on average, a 5% overestimate was found for heterogeneously structured forest across Sweden. Observed growth in a boreal single-tree selection forest was underestimated by 12.5% fifteen years after thinning from above.


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