Effects of fertilization on the growth dominance of Inland Northwest forests of the United States

Large trees have disproportionally large competitive advantage in access to light, which has been proposed to increase growth dominance of large trees (e.g., a larger proportion of volume growth than standing volume is in large trees in a stand). Tree growth may also be limited by the availability of other resources besides light. Nutrient deficiency, especially of nitrogen, is considered common among temperate forests including mixed conifer forests of the Inland Northwest of the United States. Data from a long-term forest nutrition study across four Inland Northwest states were analyzed to evaluate nitrogen x potassium fertilization's effects on growth dominance over an eight-year period following treatment. Our results show that growth dominance varied substantially across plots in each vegetation series and fertilization treatment, and its mean values generally were at minuscule magnitudes, negative, and not significantly different from 0. We propose that this lack of a clear pattern in growth dominance was the result of the mixed-species composition where shade-tolerant species remained in lower crown positions, yet their relative growth kept pace with large trees. Limited moisture availability at dry sites may have hampered the development of growth dominance. Growth dominance also was lowered by mortality observed among relatively large trees. The largely negative growth dominance across fertilization treatments indicated that small trees seem to have maintained higher relative growth rates than large trees, even if absolute growth was higher among large trees. In the case fertilization does improve stand growth, a significant part of this improved growth will be lost in density-dependent mortality over time if not captured through thinning/harvesting.

Automated summary

Large trees have a competitive advantage in accessing light, but their growth can be limited by other resources such as nitrogen deficiency. The effects of nitrogen x potassium fertilization on growth dominance were not significant, possibly due to mixed-species composition and limited moisture availability.