%0 Research article
%T Relation between soil properties and tree species composition in a Scots pine–Norway spruce stand in southern Finland
%A Levula, Janne
%A Ilvesniemi, Hannu
%A Westman, Carl Johan
%D 2003
%J Silva Fennica
%V 37
%N 2
%R doi:10.14214/sf.502
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/502
%X It is commonly known in Finland that Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is  a tree of dry soils and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L) Karst.) is a  tree of fresh soils. However, the concepts of dry and fresh soils still  lack a precise definition. Consequently, the discussion on which  soil/site is a pine or spruce habitat has continued over several  decades. Moreover, in forest regeneration, the practice of tree species  selection between the pine and the spruce has varied. We investigated  the relationship between soil properties and pine–spruce species  composition in a mature, naturally regenerated stand in southern  Finland. We applied spatial analysis to divide the stand area up into  3–7 classes based on selected soil properties and then investigated the  variations in species composition among those classes. The pine–spruce  basal area ratio (BA of pines / BA of spruces) increased along with  increasing mean particle size and proportion of coarse sand and gravel  particle size fraction (0.6–20 mm) of mineral soil, and was lowest in  classes, with the highest proportions of fine texture fractions. The  results suggest that in southern Finland on sorted soils, pine is more  competitive in regeneration and growth than spruce when mean particle  size is above 0.44 mm or percentage of coarse sand and gravel is higher  than 50%.