Half-deciduous woodlands are the combination of deciduous forests and heath forests from their vegetation. The article describes three half-deciduous forest types from the commune of Hager, 40 kilometers south form Tallinn.
The occurrence of half-deciduous forests depends on the soil conditions, especially on lime content of the soil, when the occurrence of other forest types is more a question of climate. They are important as an original site for many continental plant species.
The PDF contains a summary in Finnish.
The study is based on the results of the soil studies by Valmari (1921) and the growth inventories of respective areas. The aim is to show the connection of soil fertility (nutrient content) and forest growth with means of correlation calculations. The examined nutrients were nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus, also the electrolyte content was studied.
The results show that with increase of nitrogen content of the soil the growth of pine stand increases as well. The correlation is clearly identified. The number of birch and spruce stands is too small for systematic review. For calcium there is a similar kind of relation. With phosphorus content or amount of electrolytes the correlation with doesn’t exist. Also the loss on ignition test was conducted. The relation found is somewhat weak.