Nutritional Prescriptions for Eucalyptus Plantations: Lessons Learned from Spain

Abstract

Eucalyptus globulusLabill is the main exotic broadleaf species planted and managed for pulp and energy production in Spain, where it covers an area of more than 0.6 million ha. The climatic and soil conditions of the planting areas range from the predominantly acidic or fertile soils developed over limestone in Atlantic areas of the north and northwest of the Iberian Peninsula to the less weathered soils developed from slates, sandy deposits or limestone in the drier southwest. The widely varying conditions explain the large differences in proposed fertilizer prescriptions. This review paper provides an analysis of the proposed practices and prescriptions by considering trial results and the need to develop site specific prescriptions for seedling standards and fertilization at planting establishment. Analysis of nutritional studies and of nutrient balances over a whole rotation is presented in order to provide basic information for defining maintenance fertilization, identified as the main bottleneck for sustainable wood production in these stands. Different fertilization practices are used by non industrial owners and Spanish pulp companies, with the last one applying a more intense management relying in more fertilization. A complete consideration of nutrition-related operation and decisions is shown to be essential for maintaining potential productivity, reduce biotic and abiotic damages and reduce mineral fertilization needs.

Certifying Forests to Achieve Sustainability in Industrial Plantations: Opinions of Stakeholders in Spain

“…Nowadays, more than 0.6 million ha of land are covered with Eucalyptus spp. in Spain, and the volume of Eucalyptus globulus harvested annually is about 6 million m 3 [51]. Although, in the best sites, timber yield may reach up to 50 m 3 per ha and year, these plantations in Galicia are usually very fragmented and industrial plantations are scarce [52].…”

Exploring the factors affecting carbon and nutrient concentrations in tree biomass components in natural forests, forest plantations and short rotation forestry

“…However, this is not true for intensively exploited forest plantations or SRF, and one of the key aims of nutrient sustainability in such cases is to obtain an overall balance by assessing the nutrient fluxes that occur throughout the rotation, including the amounts removed during clearfelling (Laclau et al 2010;Vanbeveren et al, 2016). Estimation of the amounts of nutrients removed requires knowledge of the amounts of biomass in each compartment (stumps, wood, bark, branches of different sizes and leaves) and the nutrient concentrations in these components (Viera et al 2016). However, the main drawback of this approach is that nutrient concentrations in biomass compartments vary depending on plantation age, site and even tree density (Judd et al 1996;Rytter 2002;Leite et al 2011), although the concentrations stabilize in mature stands (Augusto et al 2008).…”

“…For pulp plantations, which are usually felled in cycles longer than 10 years in Spain, intensive management may lead to negative budgets (Merino et al 2005). Several management options aiming at minimizing negative nutrient budgets in forest plantations have been proposed: removal of only the wood component, leaving the bark in place; management of logging residues to enable reincorporation of the nutrients into the soil (Achat et al 2015); and modification of soil preparation techniques (Merino et al 2003;Viera et al 2016). Other possible management adaptations include re-definition of rotation length (Viera et al 2015) and the use of genetically improved materials with enhanced nutrient assimilation index (NAI), defined as the amount of biomass produced per unit of nutrient (Sochacki et al 2013).…”

Interaction of Fertilization and Weed Control Influences on Growth, Biomass, and Carbon in Eucalyptus Hybrid (E. pellita × E. brassiana)

“…Thus it can grow optimally without resulting abnormal growth (Brancalion et al, 2019). Fertilization is one of the nutrient management efforts that highly required in the site with having low soil fertility (Viera et al, 2016). In this context, fertilization potentially enhances soil chemical properties regarding nutrient availability (Mendham et al, 2009).…”