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Effect of tree species mixing on the size structure, density, and yield of forest stands

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Abstract

An increasing number of studies provide evidence that mixed-species stands can overyield monocultures. But it is still hardly understood, how the overyielding at the stand level emerges from the tree, canopy, and size structure. Analyses of 42 triplets with 126 mixed and mono-specific plots in middle-aged, two-species stands of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), and European beech (Fagus sylvativa L.) in Central Europe revealed that mixed-species compared with mono-specific stands can have (1) higher tree numbers, higher right skewness and kurtosis of the size distribution, higher inequality of tree sizes, and thereby higher stocking densities and sum of crown projection areas, (2) growth–size relationships with stronger size asymmetry of growth and higher inequality of size growth, and (3) higher stand productivity coupled with higher maximum stand density, canopy space filling, and size asymmetry. These differences depend on the species assemblage. They suggest a deeper entrance of light into the canopy as well as a higher light interception and light-use efficiency as main causes of the overyielding and overdensity. We discuss implications for research and silviculture and draw conclusions for designing and managing resource-efficient production systems.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the inspiring and helpful discussions with Dr. Miren del Rio Gaztelurrutia and Dr. Dan Binkley while working on the evaluation and the manuscript. For this study, we pooled the data of the following simultaneously ongoing projects: W 07 “Long-term experimental plots for forest growth and yield research” (# 7831-23953 W07), “Mixed stands of Scots pine and Norway spruce” (# 7831-23869 W40), and “Growth and yield of mixed stands of European beech and Douglas-fir with respect to site conditions” (# 7831-23851 W44) funded by Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry Munich, “Tree and stand-level growth reactions on drought in mixed versus pure forests of Norway spruce and European beech” (# PR 292/12-1) funded by the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), and COST Action EuMIXFOR (# FP1206) funded by the European Union. We thank all the said institutions for providing the funds, the Bayerische Staatsforsten (BaySF) for supporting the establishment of the plots in Bavaria, Kamil Bielak for providing data from the three triplets in Poland, Jan Fröhlich for programming the algorithm for the Gini coefficient analyses, Ulrich Kern for the graphical artwork, Peter Biber for pre-reviewing and improving the manuscript, and four anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism.

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  1. Chair for Forest Growth and Yield Science, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354, Freising, Bavaria, Germany

    Hans Pretzsch & Gerhard Schütze

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  1. Hans Pretzsch
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Pretzsch, H., Schütze, G. Effect of tree species mixing on the size structure, density, and yield of forest stands. Eur J Forest Res 135, 1–22 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-015-0913-z

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