Result of a survey of soils supporting forest plantations in Wisconsin in the United States indicated a close correlation between the levels of fertility of non-phreatic, coarse-textured soils and the growth of red pine (Pinus resinosa Roezl) stands aged from 15 to 32. This relationship, however was not observed in plantations established on deep-gley soils, underlain at a depth of 3–9 fl by ground water.
The survey encountered 20 red pine plantations on soils underlain by a deep ground water table accessible to tree roots thorough their contact with gley horizon or with extended capillary fringe. The average growth of the stands was 80 cubic feet/acre (5.6 m3/ha) at the age of 22 years. Thus, mensuration analysis suggested that the soils are the choice grounds for forestry enterprise. However, the analysis of soil samples showed that in many instances the soils are extremely low in mineral colloids, organic matter and nutrients. Many of the sites would be regarded as critically deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
The following hypothesis are suggested to explain this discrepancy:
a) The moisture content of coarse-textured non-phreatic soils remain near the wilting point during a large apart of the growing season with subsequent reduction of transpiration and uptake of nutrients. If a capillary fringe provides a supply of water for the root system, trees may derive an adequate supply of salts and exchangeable ions from comparatively infertile substrata.
b) The suitably located ground water provides adequate aeration of the surface soil layers which is not impeded by capillary fringe, increasing activity of mycorrhiza, and a mycotrophic uptake of nutrients from unweathered minerals.
c) The above effects of natural subirrigation should change the concept of soil fertility based on mere chemical analysis. The time during which the roots are engaged in active absorption appears to be of equal importance as the concentration of nutrients in available form.
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.
A sensitive framework has been developed for modelling young radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) survival, its growth and size class distribution, from time of planting to age 5 or 6 years. The data and analysis refer to the Central North Island region of New Zealand. The survival function is derived from a Weibull probability density function, to reflect diminishing mortality with the passage of time in young stands. An anamorphic family of trends was used, as very little between-tree competition can be expected in young stands. An exponential height function was found to fit best the lower portion of its sigmoid form. The most appropriate basal area/ha exponential function included an allometric adjustment which resulted in compatible mean height and basal area/ha models. Each of these equations successfully represented the effects of several establishment practices by making coefficients linear functions of site factors, management activities and their interactions. Height and diameter distribution modelling techniques that ensured compatibility with stand values were employed to represent the effects of management practices on crop variation. Model parameters for this research were estimated using data from site preparation experiments in the region and were tested with some independent data sets.