Silvia Lamedica, Emanuele Lingua, Ionel Popa, Renzo Motta, Marco Carrer. (2011). Spatial structure in four Norway spruce stands with different management history in the Alps and Carpathians. Silva Fennica vol. 45 no. 5 article id 75. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.75

Keywords: Picea abies; LISA; old-growth forests; point pattern analyses; random mortality; spatial structure

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In Europe most Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) mountain forests have been altered by human activities, leading to a lack of reference condition concerning their original structure. Nonetheless, remnants of Norway spruce primeval forests still exist in the Carpathians. Our objective was to assess the differences in structure between managed and unmanaged stands, concerning diameter distributions, amount of standing deadwood, spatial distributions and spatial structure of trees. We established four permanent plots: one in a virgin forest in the Eastern Carpathians and three in a previously managed forest in the Alps. In each plot, species, DBH, and position of the live and dead standing trees were collected. Spatial distribution and structure of all the trees was analysed through several indices. In the Carpathians forest there are clear signs of natural density-dependent mortality processes whereas in the Alpine plots such dynamics are less evident. In these latter plots, the lower snags volume and the random trees spatial distribution can be considered the legacies of past management. Nonetheless, despite the different history of the four stands, they all seem to converge towards a similar spatial structure with the presence of groups (30–40 m) of trees of similar size.

Lamedica, Forest Ecology Research Unit, Dept TeSAF, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy E-mail: sl@nn.it
Lingua, Forest Ecology Research Unit, Dept TeSAF, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy E-mail: el@nn.it
Popa, Forest Research and Management Institute, Research Station for Norway Spruce Silviculture, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Romania E-mail: ip@nn.ro
Motta, Department AGROSELVITER, University of Torino, Grugliasco (TO), Italy E-mail: rm@nn.it
Carrer, Forest Ecology Research Unit, Dept TeSAF, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy E-mail: marco.carrer@unipd.it

article id 339, category Research article

John W. McCarthy, Gordon Weetman. (2006). Age and size structure of gap-dynamic, old-growth boreal forest stands in Newfoundland. Silva Fennica vol. 40 no. 2 article id 339. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.339

Keywords: boreal forests; old-growth forests; gap dynamics; age and size structure; rotated sigmoid; Newfoundland

Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info

The age and size structure of trees in old Abies-Picea-Betula forests on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula were examined. It was hypothesized that the size and age structure of both the tree and regeneration “strata” of these stands display the complex structural heterogeneity characteristic of classic, self-regenerating, uneven-aged old-growth stands, and that the development and dynamics of such structures occur over long periods of time. With all tree species combined, dbh (diameter at breast height) and height distributions exhibited a strong reverse-J character, with well-defined, semi-logarithmic rotated sigmoid height and size frequencies. Seedling height and basal diameter frequency distributions were reverse-J in character. Live tree ages for all species, except white birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh), ranged from 25 to 269 years, and were characterized by all-age frequency distributions. Tree age and size were poorly correlated. On average, balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) required 62 years to reach breast height (1.3 m), with black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) and white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) requiring 40 and 48 years, respectively. Total age of dead standing trees ranged from 45 to 232 years. Reverse-J age frequencies characterized the seedling bank, with balsam fir seedlings present in nearly all age classes up to 110, 120 and 85 years in three sample stands. Seedling size (height and basal diameter)-age relationships were characteristic of decades-long suppression. The combination of tree and seedling bank size and age structure provide strong evidence of quasi-equilibrium, small-scale, gap dynamic old-growth boreal forest stands.

McCarthy, University of British Columbia, Forest Sciences Department, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z4 E-mail: jmccarthy@jesuits.ca
Weetman, University of British Columbia, Forest Sciences Department, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z4 E-mail: gw@n.ca

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