Losses of fertilizer nitrogen after a winter fertilization in three managed pine plantations of the southeastern United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 609-617
Author(s):  
Jay E. Raymond ◽  
Thomas R. Fox ◽  
Rachel L. Cook ◽  
Timothy J. Albaugh ◽  
Rafael Rubilar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Pine Plantations ◽  
Fertilizer Nitrogen

Financial Returns for Biomass on Short-Rotation Loblolly Pine Plantations in the Southeastern United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Trlica ◽  
Rachel L Cook ◽  
Timothy J Albaugh ◽  
Rajan Parajuli ◽  
David R Carter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Loblolly Pine ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Pine Plantations ◽  
Planting Density ◽  
Financial Returns ◽  
Short Rotation ◽  
Competition Control ◽  
Whole Tree

Abstract Rising demand for renewable energy has created a potential market for biomass from short-rotation pine plantations in the southeastern United States. Site preparation, competition control, fertilization, and enhanced seedling genotypes offer the landowner several variables for managing productivity, but their combined effects on financial returns are unclear. This study estimated returns from a hypothetical 10-year biomass harvest in loblolly pine plantation using field studies in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina and the Virginia Piedmont testing combinations of tree genotype, planting density, and silviculture. Although enhanced varietal genotypes could yield more biomass, open-pollinated seedlings at 1,236–1,853 trees ha−1 under operational silviculture had the greatest returns at both sites, with mean whole-tree internal rates of return of 8.3%–9.9% assuming stumpage equal to current pulpwood prices. At a 5% discount rate, break-even whole-tree stumpage at the two sites in the optimal treatments was $8.72–$9.92 Mg−1, and break-even yield was 175–177 Mg ha−1 (roughly 18 Mg ha−1 yr−1 productivity), although stumpage and yield floors were higher if only stem biomass was treated as salable. Dedicated short-rotation loblolly biomass plantations in the region are more likely to be financially attractive when site establishment and maintenance costs are minimized. Study Implications: Our study suggests that dedicated loblolly pine plantations in the US Southeast may be managed to generate positive financial yields for biomass over relatively short (10 year) rotation windows, even at lower stumpage value than at present for pulpwood in the region (<80% current). Intensive use of costly inputs like fertilizer, vigorous chemical competition control, and elite genetics in planting stock did improve biomass yields. However, the management combinations that favored the highest financial returns emphasized the least expensive open-pollinated stock, lower-input operational silviculture, and moderate-to-high planting density.

Genotype×environment interactions in selected loblolly and slash pine plantations in the Southeastern United States

2007 ◽  
Vol 238 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian E. Roth ◽  
Eric J. Jokela ◽  
Timothy A. Martin ◽  
Dudley A. Huber ◽  
Timothy L. White
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Slash Pine ◽  
Pine Plantations

Songbird Breeding Season Use of Pine Plantations Treated Chemically for Herbaceous Vegetation Control

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-105
Author(s):  
Patrick D. Keyser ◽  
J. Drew Lanham ◽  
Victor L. Ford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Pine Plantations ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Herbaceous Vegetation ◽  
Vegetation Control ◽  
Herbicide Treatment

Abstract Pine plantations, a common early successional habitat in the southeastern United States, have been subject in recent years to increased use of herbicides to control herbaceous vegetation immediately postestablishment. Such treatments may affect songbird use during the breeding season, but studies documenting bird response are limited. Furthermore, songbirds that breed in early successional habitats have experienced sustained population declines in recent decades. Therefore, we examined the influence of herbaceous vegetation control on songbird use during the breeding season within pine plantations on the Piedmont Plateau in Virginia. We evaluated 35 plantations characterized by one of five treatments: herbaceous vegetation control applied during the establishment year and that were 1, 2, or 3 y old when sampled, and those that had not received herbaceous vegetation control at establishment and that were 1 or 2 y old when sampled. There was no difference (P > 0.05) in detections of birds between plantations with and without herbicide treatment. However, 1-y-old plantations (both treated and untreated) had fewer detections (P < 0.05) than 2-y-old plantations for 3 individual species and for all 16 species combined.

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