Mixing Effects in Norway Spruce—European Beech Stands Are Modulated by Site Quality, Stand Age and Moisture Availability

Houpert, Léa; Rohner, Brigitte; Forrester, David I.; Mina, Marco; Huber, Markus

doi:10.3390/f9020083

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(97 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…According to the estimates of our mixed model, the strongest effect, which explained most of the growth variation, was actually derived from the variation in DBH among trees and sites (note that size differences in our study are mainly due to age differences and not due to differences in canopy status). Our finding that mixing benefits increased with tree size in beech is in agreement with results of two recent studies, which reported increasing mixing benefits for beech with tree size/stand age in combination with spruce (Houpert et al, 2018) and pine (Forrester et al, 2017).…”

Section: Mixing Benefits For Both Species Increase With Tree Size Andsupporting

confidence: 93%

Benefits of Mixtures on Growth Performance of Silver Fir (Abies alba) and European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) Increase With Tree Size Without Reducing Drought Tolerance

Schwarz

Bauhus

2019

Front. For. Glob. Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To mitigate negative impacts of drought stress in the face of climate change, mixtures of tree species such as those between European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and silver fir (Abies alba) are assumed to lower risks in forest management. This study investigates the influence of mixing beech and fir on tree growth in general and in particular on tree species responses to the extreme drought event of 2003. For this purpose, we analyzed basal area increment series and carbon isotope composition (δ 13 C) in wood of ∼160 trees from three mixed-species sites in Germany and one site in Croatia. Overall growth performance for both fir and beech increased with proportions of the admixed species when accounting for the interactions with tree size and competition intensity. Mixing improved growth of large trees for both species irrespective of neighborhood density, whereas smaller trees benefitted only in denser neighborhoods. Positive mixing effects on radial growth were more pronounced in fir compared to beech, yet the latter benefitted by admixture of fir with regard to growth recovery following drought. Both the resistance of radial growth against reduction during drought as well as the variation of isotopic composition throughout the drought period were not affected by mixing, indicating that water-use in these two species was not complementary under drought stress. Although trees from both species exhibited growth reductions during the drought, fir maintained higher absolute growth levels than beech during the drought. Both species benefited from growing in mixed neighborhoods but complementary effects depended on tree size and neighborhood density. Mixing fir and beech leads to positive or neutral effects on growth performance of trees, also in response to an extreme drought event. Since increasing tree species richness also spreads the risks associated with extreme events, mixtures of beech and fir can be recommended as a possible alternative for more drought-sensitive stands such as spruce monocultures.

show abstract

Section: Mixing Benefits For Both Species Increase With Tree Size Andsupporting

confidence: 93%

Benefits of Mixtures on Growth Performance of Silver Fir (Abies alba) and European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) Increase With Tree Size Without Reducing Drought Tolerance

Schwarz

Bauhus

2019

Front. For. Glob. Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Maple, beech, spruce and oak showed the clear negative effect of mixtures with broadleaved trees (mixB), which is in accordance with the findings in Houpert et al [49]. Positive effects were found when the leading species was coniferous for larch and fir.…”

Section: Mixturesupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Positive effects were found when the leading species was coniferous for larch and fir. This is also supported by [49], although only the presence of coniferous trees was used rather than the proportion.…”

Section: Mixturementioning

confidence: 67%

Climate Sensitive Tree Growth Functions and the Role of Transformations

Zell

2018

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this study is to develop climate-sensitive single-tree growth models, to be used in stand based prediction systems of managed forest in Switzerland. Long-term observations from experimental forest management trials were used, together with retrospective climate information from 1904 up to 2012. A special focus is given to the role of transformation of modelling basal area increment, helping to normalize the random error distribution. A nonlinear model formulation was used to describe the basic relation between basal area increment and diameter at breast height. This formulation was widely expanded by groups of explanatory variables, describing competition, stand development, site, stand density, thinning, mixture, and climate. The models are species-specific and contain different explanatory variables per group, being able to explain a high amount of variance (on the original scale, up to 80% in the case of Quercus spec.). Different transformations of the nonlinear relation where tested and based on the mean squared error, the square root transformation performed best. Although the residuals were homoscedastic, they were still long-tailed and not normal distributed, making robust statistics the preferred method for statistical inference. Climate is included as a nonlinear and interacting effect of temperature, precipitation and moisture, with a biological meaningful interpretation per tree species, e.g., showing better growth for Abies alba in warm and wet climates and good growing conditions for Picea abies in colder and dryer climates, being less sensitive on temperature. Furthermore, a linear increase in growth was found to be present since the 1940s. Potentially this is an effect of the increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration or changed management in terms of reduced nutrient subtractions from forest ground, since industrialization lowered the demand of residue and slash uptake.

show abstract

“…Houpert et al [39] studied the influence of site quality, stand age and moisture availability in mixed Norway spruce-European beech stands and found out that Fagus sylvatica grew better in mixtures and this effect increased with site quality. A significant interaction between species proportions and stand age was found for both species: the older the stand, the better the growth of Fagus sylvatica and the lower the growth of Picea abies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the influence of site quality on the complementarity effect, Pretzsch et al [38] carried out a research on mixed versus monospecific stands of Pinus sylvestris and Fagus sylvatica along a productivity gradient through Europe, covering an area where climatic variables took very different values, and did not find that overyielding was dependent on site quality or climate. On the other hand, other studies have pointed out that the interactions between species depend on a series of factors such as site quality, climate, stand age or stand density [22][23][24]39].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Species Complementarity on Financial Return in Mixed Stands of European Beech and Scots Pine in Northern Spain

García-Robredo

2018

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The research on mixed-species forestry has rapidly increased in recent decades because there is a growing interest in these types of stands for environmental reasons. Their positive influence on ecosystem biodiversity, stability and resilience, as well as their role in the new challenge brought up by the adaptation to global change, have been the object of many research works. However, the economic implications of mixed-species forest management have not deserved the same attention. The objective of this work is to study the effect of species interactions on productivity, and to economically assess this effect. This research is focused on the analysis of financial return and risk in even aged mixed stands of Pinus sylvestris and Fagus sylvatica in Northern Spain. Growth and yield projections for monospecific and mixed stands of Scots pine and European beech were made by means of a previous model developed from a set of the Spanish National Forest Inventory plots in the region of Navarre. Data from yield tables for both species were used. The effect of species proportion on total stand yield was assessed and transgressive overyielding was found for some mixing ratios. A data series on average stumpage price for both species in Spain over a 29-year period was compiled and the joint probability distribution of price data was used to generate 500 price scenarios. Different management alternatives based on species proportion and rotation age were considered and evaluated in terms of profitability and risk. Some management recommendations can be derived from the results obtained, which point at an optimum mixing ratio from 30% to 40% Scots pine and 70% to 60% European beech.

show abstract

Mixing Effects in Norway Spruce—European Beech Stands Are Modulated by Site Quality, Stand Age and Moisture Availability

Cited by 9 publications

References 52 publications

Benefits of Mixtures on Growth Performance of Silver Fir (Abies alba) and European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) Increase With Tree Size Without Reducing Drought Tolerance

Benefits of Mixtures on Growth Performance of Silver Fir (Abies alba) and European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) Increase With Tree Size Without Reducing Drought Tolerance

Climate Sensitive Tree Growth Functions and the Role of Transformations

Effect of Species Complementarity on Financial Return in Mixed Stands of European Beech and Scots Pine in Northern Spain

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About