The relative importance of environmental drivers and their interactions on the growth of Norway spruce depends on soil unit classes: A case study from Saxony and Thuringia, Germany

Seltmann, Christian Torsten; Wernicke, Jakob; Petzold, Rainer; Baumann, Martin; Münder, K.; Martens, Sven

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118671

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Our finding is similar to those reported in other studies [12,13,80,81]. The negative effect of the MAMAXT on the SDH may be attributed to enhanced summer drought [80].…”

Section: Relationships Between the Stand Dominant Height (Sdh) And Sp...supporting

confidence: 92%

Predicting and Mapping Dominant Height of Oriental Beech Stands Using Environmental Variables in Sinop, Northern Turkey

Yener,

Guvendi

2023

Sustainability

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The dominant height of forest stands (SDH) is an essential indicator of site productivity in operational forest management. It refers to the capacity of a particular site to support stand growth. Sites with taller dominant trees are typically more productive and may be more suitable for certain management practices. The present study investigated the relationship between the dominant height of oriental beech stands and numerous environmental variables, including physiographic, climatic, and edaphic attributes. We developed models and generated maps of SDH using multilinear regression (MLR) and regression tree (RT) techniques based on environmental variables. With this aim, the total height, diameter at breast height, and age of sample trees were measured on 222 sample plots. Additionally, topsoil samples (0–20 cm) were collected from each plot to analyze the physical and chemical soil properties. The statistical results showed that latitude, elevation, mean annual maximum temperature, and several soil attributes (i.e., bulk density, field capacity, organic carbon, and pH) were significantly correlated with the SDH. The RT model outperformed the MLR model, explaining 57% of the variation in the SDH with an RMSE of 2.37 m. The maps generated by both models clearly indicated an increasing trend in the SDH from north to south, suggesting that elevation above sea level is a driving factor shaping forest canopy height. The assessments, models, and maps provided by this study can be used by forest planners and land managers, as there is no reliable data on site productivity in the studied region.

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“…Our finding is similar to those reported in other studies [12,13,80,81]. The negative effect of the MAMAXT on the SDH may be attributed to enhanced summer drought [80].…”

Section: Relationships Between the Stand Dominant Height (Sdh) And Sp...supporting

confidence: 92%

Predicting and Mapping Dominant Height of Oriental Beech Stands Using Environmental Variables in Sinop, Northern Turkey

Yener,

Guvendi

2023

Sustainability

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“…Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) were used to assess the rela<ve importance of the explanatory variables on the protec<ve effect of a stand. BRT are a machine learning technique that combines regression tree models and boos<ng algorithms (Elith et al, 2008); they are increasingly used in ecological studies (e.g., Schuler et al, 2019;Seltmann et al, 2021;Szwagrzyk et al, 2021;Thom and Seidl, 2021). A dis<nct advantage of BRT is that they can handle different types and distribu<ons of target and explanatory variables without prior transforma<on, as well as diverse and complex types of data rela<onships, including non-lin-eari<es and interac<ons, without the need of specifying them a priori.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management recommendations for Alpine protection forests: the importance of regeneration quality and initial stand composition

Schmid,

Frehner,

Bugmann

2024

Preprint

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The protection of infrastructure against gravitational natural hazards is one of the most important ecosystem services (ES) of mountain forests in Alpine countries. For a continuous provision of this ES, forests need to have a high protective effect, e.g., high canopy cover and/or stem numbers, while being resistant to and resilient after disturbances by being well-structured and stable, having a species composition adapted to the local site conditions and sufficient regeneration, all on a relatively small spatial scale. While ″natural″ forests may fulfill these prerequisites without human intervention, management history and high levels of ungulate browsing have produced unsustainable stand structures in many protection forests that need to be improved by management. The general principles of protection forest management are well established, but there are no quantitative, science-based recommendations for management regimes, i.e., specific sequences of interventions, that ensure a continuous protective quality. Our goal was to derive such recommendations for different stand types across three elevational zones, from mixed forests of the upper montane to spruce forests of the subalpine zone. We used an updated version of the model ProForM to simulate stand development under different levels of ungulate browsing, testing a large number of management regimes that vary in the spatial aggregation of tree removal, the intensity and interval of the interventions. We investigated the influence of browsing pressure and management on the protective quality using Boosted Regression Trees and Beta regression. High levels of ungulate browsing had such a strong negative effect on the protective quality that it could not be improved through forest management. This underlines the need for maintaining ungulate densities in Alpine forests at levels that allow for the successful regeneration of all key tree species. In stands that are influenced less by browsing, the protective quality can be improved through management in many cases, with specific management recommendations differing mostly depending on the initial stand conditions and, to a lesser extent, on the elevational zone. Well-structured stands provide a high protective quality without management interventions during at least a century across all elevational zones. In young and in mature stands, we generally recommend management regimes with relatively long return intervals of 30 to 40 years and low intervention intensities of 10 to 20% basal area removal.

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“…In most areas, high precipitation causes temporary water logging only, which fits well to the demands of spruce. Seltmann et al (2021) examined the basal area increment of spruce on three soils (Cambisols, Podzols and water influenced soils) and found the highest increment on sites with Cambisols. Similarly, Monserud and Sterba (1996) found that spruce grows best on the Eutric Cambisols, Podzols and Eutric Planosols over flysch and worst on Leptosols derived from calcareous bedrock.…”

Section: The Effect Of Soil On Stand and Tree Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, if soil variables are derived from soil maps or assessed in the field by rapid determination methods, the spatial scale of the investigation and the sample size can be larger. Studying multiple interactions between soil, climate and other variables is challenging (Aertsen et al, 2012) since the growth response of a tree species under various environmental factors may be specific for a soil class (Seltmann et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree and stand growth differ among soil classes in semi-natural forests in central Europe

Bončina

Klopčić

Trifković

et al. 2023

CATENA

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The relative importance of environmental drivers and their interactions on the growth of Norway spruce depends on soil unit classes: A case study from Saxony and Thuringia, Germany

Cited by 8 publications

References 37 publications

Predicting and Mapping Dominant Height of Oriental Beech Stands Using Environmental Variables in Sinop, Northern Turkey

Predicting and Mapping Dominant Height of Oriental Beech Stands Using Environmental Variables in Sinop, Northern Turkey

Management recommendations for Alpine protection forests: the importance of regeneration quality and initial stand composition

Tree and stand growth differ among soil classes in semi-natural forests in central Europe

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