Journal
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
Volume 12, Issue 5, Pages 621-626Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.2307/3236901
Keywords
Abies alba; beech; development phase; Fagus sylvatica; fir; forest stand dynamics; gap paradigms; natural forest; Picea abies; spruce
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In a montane mixed Fagus-Abies-Picea forest in Bahia Gora National Park (southern Poland). the dynamics of an old-growth stand were studied by combining an 8-yr annual census of trees in a 1-ha permanent sample plot with radial increments of Abies and Picea growing in the central part of the plot. The mortality among the canopy trees was relatively high (10% in 8 yr), but the basal area increment of surviving trees slightly exceeded the losses caused by tree death. DBH increment was positively correlated with initial diameter in Abies and Picea, but not in Fagus. For individual trees smaller than the median height, basal area increment was positively related to the basal area of old snags and the basal area of recently deceased trees in their neighbourhood, but negatively related to the basal area of live trees. Dendrochronological analysis of the past growth patterns revealed numerous periods of release and suppression. which were usually not synchronized among the trees within a 0.3 ha plot. The almost normal distribution of canopy tree DBH and the small number of young individuals in the plot indicated that stand dynamics were synchronized over a relatively large area and, hence, were consistent with the developmental phase concept. On the other hand. the lack of synchronization among, periods of growth acceleration in individual mature Abies and Picea trees conforms more closely to the gap-dynamics paradigm.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available