Journal
TREES-STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
Volume 25, Issue 3, Pages 355-369Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00468-010-0510-1
Keywords
Size-asymmetric growth; Diameter increment; Competition; Resource partitioning; Limitation; Allocation principle; Stand structure
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bavarian State Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry [W 07]
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Against a backdrop of increasing climate change, the effects of site conditions, drought events and ozone stress on the size-growth relationship in Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica [L.]) stands are analyzed. The size-growth relationship is represented by a straight line defined by intercept and slope of a simple linear equation with stem diameter at height 1.30 m as independent variable and annual stem diameter increment at height 1.30 as dependent variable. On the basis of 64 long-term experimental plots dating back to 1871 and representing an ecological gradient from fertile to poor sites, it is shown that poorer sites exhibit shallower slopes of the linear size-growth relationships than fertile sites. Annual measurements of the size-growth relationship, including the extremely dry years of 1976 and 2003, also showed that lower stand growth rates result in shallower size-growth relationship slopes. By comparing stands with and without experimental twice-ambient ozone exposure between 2000 and 2007, it was found that ozone stress can significantly reduce the slope of the size-growth relationship. This indicates that limiting site condition, whether acute or chronic in nature, distinctly reduces the superiority of tall trees, and that a lower degree of resource limitation increases the steepness of the size-growth relationship. The causes for this behavior and the consequences for stand dynamics, silvicultural treatment and prognostication by models are discussed.
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