Earlier studies show that different kind of biological processes occur in the soil of different forest types. These differences may be due differences in microbiology of those soils. This article studies these differences.
Soil samples from five different forest types were collected from the Ruotsinkylä research forest in three different seasons: in January, March and September.
The amount of bacteria in the samples is at the lowest in March and highest in September. During the winter more anaerobic bacteria were found. The amount of denitrifying bacteria is higher in the soil than amount of nitrifying bacteria.
The results indicate that the species composition of soil varies between the forest types in the same manner than the vegetation composition above the soil. However, this study is only a preliminary and more knowledge is needed about the discipline before practical implications can be drawn.
The PDF contains a summary in Finnish.
Half-deciduous woodlands are the combination of deciduous forests and heath forests from their vegetation. The article describes three half-deciduous forest types from the commune of Hager, 40 kilometers south form Tallinn.
The occurrence of half-deciduous forests depends on the soil conditions, especially on lime content of the soil, when the occurrence of other forest types is more a question of climate. They are important as an original site for many continental plant species.
The PDF contains a summary in Finnish.
The article summarizes the observations about forest types from different parts of Estonia. The chosen examples represent the normal forest where age class division is natural and the species composition has not been altered through felling or grazing. These are mainly found in the areas of earlier manors of the nobility. The samples are only from mineral soils. Vegetation analysis and middle-European height-over-age-survey were made.
Because of the great share of herb-rich-forest the forest type classification for Estonia is complex. There are many types that have not been described earlier.
The study describes the characteristics and the vegetation types of the heath forests, fresh forests, half-herb-rich-forests and herb-rich-forests.
The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.
The article discusses the different methods to classify forest sites and applies the methods to classify forests in Latvia. The three methods are: height-over-age classification, from standpoint of floristic (botanical- plant geographical standpoint), and forest types. A good classification method must: describe the main characters of a site illustratively, the classification units need to relate to each other, and the classification method is easy to use in practice. In contrast to other methods, by forest type classification the stand and the site are considered as whole and hence it is considered as the best of the three.
There is one classification system for the whole Latvia. The forests can be divided into permanent and transition types. In the permanent types the site factors stay rather unchanged and the site characters tally with the requirements of the dominant species. sites where the current tree species produces less than optimum growth are classified as transition types.
The forest types have changed over the time because of leaching of the nutrients from the soil.
The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.
The aim of the study is to define to which extent the productivity of seas in south Finland, and especially the production of animals in sea bottom, can be determined according the forest site classification given to the land areas around the sea, meaning that the productivity class is the same for the forest and the sea. The data for the study has been collected in state owned forests in Evo in middle Finland, in Karelia around the Finnish and Russian border and in southern parts of Karelia.
Where the forests are more barren, VT or Ct types, also the seas have lower productivity, they are oligotrophic or mesotrophic. However, the less barren surrounding forests are not a clear sign of the productivity of the sea. As a result the productivity level of a sea can be estimated relatively good by the fertility of the surrounding areas, though not in all cases.
The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.
The PDF contains a summary in German.
In Sweden lot of state owned forests or earlier mining districts or districts of ironworks have been afforested during the last decade. The amount of afforested areas sinks from south to north. Afforestation has taken place also in privately owned forests.
The article discusses the common economic questions related to afforestation work and the biological viewpoints related to it. The best cultivation methods are presented for several common forest types, such as herb-rich forest types, moss-grown forests types, swampy forests with heavy raw humus and barren pine forest sites (lichen type).
The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.
The article is a congratulatory letter to professor Cajander. The author describes the work of Cajander about forest site classification and its importance to the development of forest sciences not only in Finland but worldwide.
The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.
The article contains a literature review about the spatial order of plants and a description of the small-scale experiments with corn. The literature is primarily of German origin. The question of the spatial conditions of trees in forest is important for practice of silviculture. The first part of the article illustrates based on the literature the importance of roots and root concurrence for the development of plants or forest stands. The second and third part deepens the methodological knowledge on root research. Fourth part is the field experiments with corn. There are no clear relation to be found between yield and the number of plants.
The article aims to clarify the terminology and concepts related to forest type classification. The silvicultural meaning of forest type classification is to create classes so that the forests in one class have proximately same growth and yield conditions. The article describes the meaning of silvicultural forest type classification with seven objectives: to create a common height over age -site classification for all tree species; to achieve a common site classification practice for different countries; to achieve the natural height over age –site classifications that are easy to take into account by map drawing; to be able to treat the data for every class separately; to achieve a simple but illustrative description of the site characteristics; to have a foundation for special (applied) silviculture; to create as uniform classification of forests as possible for silvicultural, forest planning or forest policy purposes.
The article is a presentation given by the author on occasion of visit from Austrian timber industry and foresters (August 17th 1923) in Punkaharju, Finland.
The article presents the classification of soils as forest types to describe their fertility and their occurrence in different parts of Finland. The economic conditions are only shortly mentioned: the more fertile areas in southern and western Finland have been taken for agriculture and the less fertile soils have stayed forested.
The paper studies the relationship of settlements to the forest types and forest soil. The observations have been done and data collected in southern Finland, around lakes Päijänne and Saimaa during summer 1917. Because of the shortcomings in the data, the results in the paper can be seen only as indicative.
The settlements have spread out firstly to areas of grove alike soils and herb-rich forests. The human settlements are still on these days concentrated on those areas. When more land is needed for agricultural purposes, the more fertile areas were introduced first. With forest type classification this means moving from herb-rich Oxalis-Myrtillus-type to Pyrola-type and to some extent Myrtillus-type. The more barren types are used as fields only very seldom. The differences in the fertility of the soils affects strongly the welfare and development of the people and the communes.
The study shows that when considering the soil and vegetation, preconditions for agriculture are very different in different part of Finland. Also the climate and the geographical characters vary. To win more agricultural land, the fertile peatlands should be considered.
The article statistically studies the vegetation patterns in different forest types.
467 sample plots with area varying from one fourth of a hectare to one eighth, even one tenth of a hectare were collected. There are different amount of sample plots representing every forest type. The sample plots are located in 58 communes in southern parts of Finland, reaching from the Gulf of Finland up to Oulujärvi –see in northern Ostrobothnia. The vegetation was examined from rectangle shaped study plots in even structured and even-aged stands with one primary tree species.
The results are shown in tables for every forest type. The amount of species is at highest in the most nutritious forest types, and decreases with the shift to more infertile types. However, some species occur in all forest types, and some only or mostly on more barren types. The occurrence and abundance of most plant species does not seem to depend on the tree species of the stand, but there are some exceptions to this.
The possible shortcomings of the research method are discussed. The importance of systematic studying of the sample plots with a method of survey lines is emphasized.
The article contains tree lectures given in the meeting of the Geographical Society in Finland on February 25th 1921. The titles of the lectures are I Forest types in general, II Forest types as a basis for new growth and yield tables in Finland, and III Other research on forest types.
The first lecture is a follow-up of the Cajander’s 1909 published article on forest types. It deepens the theory on forest types. The classification into forest types represents primarily different plant communities of ground cover. The types are named after the characteristic plant species, indicator plants, however, many other species appear in different abundance.
The second lecture represents the research proceedings of mensuration of forest stands of different types to compile yield tables for pine. The forest types differ from each other distinctly on their growing preconditions, but inside one class the variation of the growing conditions is so small, that the classification can be used for yield tables, determining the basis of taxation and for classification of forest based on height over age.
The third lecture is a summary of other studies about forest type classification. They confirm the results presented in earlier lectures.
The data has been collected in spruce forests in mountainous areas of Germany: Fichtelgebirge and Böhmerwald in Bavaria, Erzgebirge in Saxonia. The studied characteristics of the stand were: growth of the trees in height and diameter, and the ground vegetation. The stands were classified according Cajander’s forest site classification. The article presents the most common plants and other characteristics of every forest site type and studied stands. The relation of the height of the trees and their age is represented in diagrams for every forest type.
The presence of indicator plants is somewhat dependent on the stand age and crown coverage. The amount of species is lowest when the crown coverage is at the greatest.
As conclusion of the study it can be seen that the growth of the stand differentiates clearly depending on the forest site type, being greater at the more nutritious sites. Since the differently growing stands need different management, it would be natural to direct the management of the stand according the forest site type.
The study is based on research in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, north Russia and Siberia, and Finland in years 1906-1908. The objective of the study is to find means to create forest site classes or forest types to direct practical forest management.
The article presents the classification of forests into site classes (Oxalis-Majanthemum type, Myrtillus type, Vaccinium type and Calluna type). The second part of the article represents different methods to calculate growth and yield tables for different forest site types. The conclusion of the study is that forest areas with similar vegetation and forest type can be handled in one way for forest management.
The article contains three presentations given about forest type classification at the University of Tarto in Estonia. The article has an introduction, a part about the meaning of the natural classification of forest sites and up to now conducted studies on site classification. The second part presents the characteristics of plant communities and the forest types, and practical and theoretical meaning of forest types.
Classifying the forest sites is important in practical forestry, because the forest growth and forest valuation are dependent on the productivity of the soil. The classification of the sites for forest management purposes needs to result in classes that are easily distinguished in the forest. This then leads to forest management that best fits to a certain forest site.