The compensatory growth of shrubby Pinus thunbergii response to the boring stress in sandy coast

Abstract

Pinus thunbergii is one of the main tree species of the coastal forest in Shandong peninsula, China, and plays important roles in resisting natural perturbation and maintaining its ecological functions. Adapted to the sandy ocean coast habitats and the windy conditions, the species has developed shrubby crown due to compensatory response, an important mechanism to adapt the stress environments, induced by the insect boring wounds through still unknown mechanisms. For the purpose of sustainable management of P. thunbergii forests, this study elucidated the mechanism of compensatory response and its role in the formation process of crown architecture by comparing growth characteristics of the pre鄄 and post鄄 boring treatments. We randomly sampled 20 trees from the coastal pine forests for monitoring the morphological changes of