Leaf area and tree increment dynamics of even-aged and multiaged lodgepole pine stands in Montana

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 687-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra L Kollenberg ◽  
Kevin L O'Hara

Age structure and distribution of leaf area index (LAI) of even and multiaged lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm.) stands were examined on three study areas in western and central Montana. Projected leaf area was determined based on a relationship with sapwood cross-sectional area at breast height. Stand structure and LAI varied considerably between individual plots. LAI and stand stem volume increment were significantly higher in multiaged than even-aged stands with the exception of one study area, which had higher volume increment in even-aged stands. Older cohorts and higher canopy strata generally had greater LAI than younger cohorts and lower strata. Ratios of stem volume increment to leaf area were used to assess stand, cohort, and individual tree vigor or growing space efficiency (GSE). Even-aged stands had significantly higher GSEs in individual study areas and overall than multiaged stands. Cohort GSE generally increased with increasing age of the cohort. Stand increment was weakly associated with stand LAI. Individual tree volume increment was strongly related to projected leaf area when stands were divided by age-classes or canopy strata. These results suggest separating these stands into components, such as age classes or canopy strata, and summing predicted increment for each component may provide more accurate prediction of stand increment than using whole-stand LAI.

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Keane ◽  
G. F. Weetman

To better understand the phenomenon of growth "stagnation" in high-density lodgepole pine (Pinuscontorta Dougl. ex Loud.), leaf area and its relationship with sapwood cross-sectional area were examined on both an individual tree and stand basis. Leaf areas of individual trees in a 22-year-old stand varied from 30.8 m2 (dominants in stands of low stocking) to 0.05 m2 (suppressed trees in stands of high stocking). Leaf area indices ranged from 13.4 to 2.3 m2 m−2 between low and high stocking levels, respectively. Over the same stocking range, the ratio of leaf area to sapwood cross-sectional area was reduced from 0.3 to 0.15 m2 cm−2. Intraring wood density profiles showed that ovendry density increased from 0.52 to 0.7 g cm−3 and the proportion of early wood decreased over a stocking level range of 6500–109 000 trees/ha. A reduction in hydraulic conductivity in the stems of stagnant trees, suggested by the greater proportion of narrow-diameter tracheids present, may lead to a greater resistance to water transport within the boles of trees from stagnant stands, leading to low leaf areas.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 617-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-Pascal Berrill ◽  
Kevin L. O’Hara

Projected leaf area estimates were used to predict volume increment and basal area of second-growth coast redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.) trees on Jackson Demonstration State Forest, Mendocino County, California. Sample plots were established within even-aged and multiaged mixed-species stands. Redwood tree basal area growth was more strongly related to sapwood area than to tree size and differed significantly between canopy strata and overstory stratum crown classes. Projected leaf area was predicted from sapwood area for each tree, and summarized to the stand level, giving a maximum stand leaf area index (LAI) estimate of 14.9 m2/m2. Redwood tree growing space efficiency (GSE; the ratio of stem volume increment to leaf area) was greatest on average among emergent overstory trees, followed by dominant and codominant overstory trees. There was no evidence of declining overstory tree GSE with increasing leaf area over the range of data collected. A nonlinear model predicted increasing understory tree GSE with increasing leaf area. Models that predict basal area and LAI were developed to permit implementation of GSE models from basic inventory data.


1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 464-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Magnussen ◽  
V. G. Smith ◽  
C. W. Yeatman

This paper reports on foliage and tree size data collected in 1984 in an Ontario Pinusbanksiana Lamb, (jack pine) provenance trial established in 1954 at the Petawawa National Forestry Institute, Chalk River, Ont. The ratio of total needle area to needle dry weight of seven provenances showed a substantial within-tree, between-tree, and between-provenance variation that was associated with position within the tree and the average provenance tree size. Provenance mean values ranged from 11.7 to 14.3 m2/kg. The highest values were found in the tallest trees. Tree size and dry matter content varied significantly among provenances, but the relative growth rates of stem volume and aboveground biomass between the ages of 29 and 34 years averaged 5.7 and 4.9% per year in all provenances respectively. Aboveground dry matter production per hectare per year increased linearly with increasing projected leaf area index. The average increase was 1.9 t dry matter per l m2 increase in the leaf area index. Projected leaf area indices for optimally stocked stands averaged 5.0 m2/m2. The results indicated an almost constant net assimilation rate of 1.9 g aboveground dry matter per square decimetre of projected foliage per year in all provenances. Canopy foliage area was strongly correlated with basal area at 1.3 m and stem cross-sectional area at the base of the live crown. Total foliage area per unit basal area averaged 0.31 m2/cm2 at breast height and 0.70 m2/cm2 in the live crown. No significant differences were found between provenances.


2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Kevin L. O'Hara ◽  
Cassandra L. Kollenberg

Abstract Patterns of leaf area distribution in multiaged lodgepole pine stands were used to develop a stocking control model. This model, the Lodgepole Pine–Multi-aged Stocking Control Model (LPP–MASAM), allows the user to design multiaged stand structures for implementation in lodgepole pine stands in the northern Rocky Mountains. The model is suitable for designing stands with two or three age classes, or two canopy strata. These multiaged stands represent a management alternative to even-aged stands where vigorous stands exist and windthrow is not a major constraint. The model requires the user to divide stands into components such as age classes or canopy strata that are the basic unit for growing space allocation. Growing space is represented by leaf area index. Stocking regimes are assessed over a single cutting cycle using projections of volume increment, stand density and tree vigor. Example stocking regimes are provided as are internet links to access the model. West. J. Appl. For. 18(1):15–21.


2021 ◽  
Vol 494 ◽  
pp. 119337
Author(s):  
Marina Caselli ◽  
Gabriel Ángel Loguercio ◽  
María Florencia Urretavizcaya ◽  
Guillermo Emilio Defossé

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 2403-2412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Kashian ◽  
Rebecca M. Jackson ◽  
Heather D. Lyons

Extensive outbreaks of the mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) will alter the structure of many stands that will likely be attacked again before experiencing a stand-replacing fire. We examined a stand of lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm. ex S. Watson) in Grand Teton National Park currently experiencing a moderate-level outbreak and previously attacked by mountain pine beetle in the 1960s. Consistent with published studies, tree diameter was the main predictor of beetle attack on a given tree, large trees were preferentially attacked, and tree vigor, age, and cone production were unimportant variables for beetle attack at epidemic levels. Small trees killed in the stand were killed based mainly on their proximity to large trees and were likely spatially aggregated with large trees as a result of the previous outbreak. We concluded that the driving factors of beetle attack and their spatial patterns are consistent across outbreak severities but that stand structure altered by the previous outbreak had implications for the current outbreaks in the same location. This study should catalyze additional research that examines how beetle-altered stand structure affects future outbreaks — an important priority for predicting their impacts under climate change scenarios that project increases in outbreak frequency and extent.


Author(s):  
Monica Turner ◽  
Rebecca Reed ◽  
William Romme ◽  
Mary Finley ◽  
Dennis Knight

The 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, affected >250,000 ha, creating a striking mosaic of burn severities across the landscape which is likely to influence ecological processes for decades to come (Christensen et al. 1989, Knight and Wallace 1989, Turner et al.1994). Substantial spatial heterogeneity in early post-fire succession has been observed in the decade since the fires, resulting largely from spatial variation in fire severity and in the availability of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) seeds in or near the burned area (Anderson and Romme 1991, Tinker et al. 1994, Turner et al. 1997). Post­fire vegetation now includes pine stands ranging from relatively low to extremely high pine sapling density (ca 10,000 to nearly 100,000 stems ha-1) as well as non-forest or marginally forested vegetation across the Yellowstone landscape may influence ecosystem processes related to energy flow and biogeochemisty. We also are interested in how quickly these processes may return to their pre­ disturbance characteristics. In this pilot study, we began to address these general questions by examining the variation in above-ground net primary production (ANPP), leaf area index (LAI) of tree (lodgepole pine) and herbaceous components, and rates of nitrogen mineralization and loss in successional stands 9 years after the fires. ANPP measures the cumulative new biomass generated over a given period of time, and is a fundamental ecosystem property often used to compare ecosystems (Carpenter 1998). Leaf area (typically expressed as leaf area index [LAI], i.e., leaf area per unit ground surface area) influences rates of two fundamental ecosystem processes -­ primary productivity and transpiration -- and is communities (


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 160-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne D. Johnstone

Abstract The effects of spacing 7-year-old second-growth lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.) are reported 20 growing seasons after treatment. Five spacing levels of 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, and 2,500 trees per hectare, plus unspaced controls, were established on plots in central British Columbia. Both individual-tree and per-hectare data were analyzed. Spacing had a significant effect on all of the individual-tree characteristics examined, but its effect on per-hectare values was mixed. Although this report only provides short-term information on the effects of juvenile spacing on the growth and yield of lodgepole pine, it does indicate the need to optimize individual-tree growth rates with levels of growing stock to maximize yield per unit area. West. J. Appl. For. 20(3):160–166.


1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 186-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shongming Huang

Abstract Using the felled tree data, ecoregion-based height-diameter models were developed for lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) in Alberta. A large number of height-diameter functions were evaluated, and the Chapman-Richards function was found to produce some of the most satisfactory fits. Residual analysis was conducted to identify the error structure of the models. A weighting factor of wi = 1/Di was found appropriate for achieving the equal error variance assumption. Differences of the height-diameter models among different ecoregions were examined and tested using the nonlinear extra sum of squares method. Most height-diameter relationships were found to be different among different ecoregions. Ecoregions of similar height-diameter relationships were combined to provide a composite model to facilitate the practical use of such relationships. West. J. Appl. For. 14(4):186-193.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellen N. Nelson ◽  
Monica G. Turner ◽  
William H. Romme ◽  
Daniel B. Tinker

Early-seral forests are expanding throughout western North America as fire frequency and annual area burned increase, yet fire behaviour in young postfire forests is poorly understood. We simulated fire behaviour in 24-year-old lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) stands in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States using operational models parameterised with empirical fuel characteristics, 50–99% fuel moisture conditions, and 1–60kmhr−1 open winds to address two questions: [1] How does fireline intensity, and crown fire initiation and spread vary among young, lodgepole pine stands? [2] What are the contributions of fuels, moisture and wind on fire behaviour? Sensitivity analysis indicated the greatest contributors to output variance were stand structure mediated wind attenuation, shrub fuel loads and 1000-h fuel moisture for fireline intensity; crown base height for crown fire initiation; and crown bulk density and 1-h fuel moisture for crown fire spread. Simulation results predicted crown fire (e.g. passive, conditional or active types) in over 90% of stands at 50th percentile moisture conditions and wind speeds greater than 3kmhr−1. We conclude that dense canopy characteristics heighten crown fire potential in young, postfire lodgepole pine forests even under less than extreme wind and fuel moisture conditions.


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