Young Silver Birch Grows Faster and Allocates Higher Portion of Biomass into Stem Than Norway Spruce, a Case Study from a Post-Disturbance Forest

Forests

Peter Surový¹  Katarína Merganičová¹  Vladimír Šebeň²  Bohdan Konôpka²  Jozef Pajtík² 

[1] Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, CZ-165 000 Prague, Czech Republic;National Forest Centre, Forest Research Institute Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 22, SK 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia;

关键词: Betula pendula;    Picea abies;    aboveground tree components;    diameter increment;    stem volume;    wood density;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f12040433

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The aim of the paper was to compare young silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) growing at the identical site, from the point of contribution of tree components to their aboveground biomass stock, their wood density, radial increment and aboveground biomass production. Our research activities were performed in the High Tatra Mts., which belong to the Tatra National Park (TANAP), Northern Slovakia. Currently, the substantial part of the TANAP territory is covered by post-disturbance young forests which have been growing there since the large-scale windstorm episode in November 2004. Our study combined non-destructive repeated tree measurements performed at two transects in 2016–2020, with destructive tree sampling of twenty 14-year-old individuals for each species. From the gathered data, we derived models estimating standing stock and annual production of aboveground biomass in individual tree components (foliage, branches, stem bark and stem wood), using diameter at breast height (DBH) as a predictor. The results showed contrasting contributions of tree compartments to aboveground biomass stock between birch and spruce. While spruce trees had four times higher contribution of foliage than birches, the reverse situation (1.5-fold difference) was observed for stem over bark biomass. At the same time, birch trees had a 40% greater diameter increment and a 30% denser stem wood than spruce. As for aboveground biomass production, the contribution of the stem as an economically important component was greater in birch than spruce. The results suggest that, in the young growth stage, birch may be advantageous over spruce in both ecological and production properties. Therefore, we believe that strengthening research activities focused on birch ecology and production issues would bring practical recommendations for better utilization of this tree species in forestry and wood-processing industry sectors

【 授权许可】

Unknown