Early growth of four different tree species (Pinus sylvestris L., Picea abies (L.) H. Karst., Larix sibirica Ledeb and Betula pendula Roth) 16–23 years after planting were compared in a field experiment of 16 square plots established on a stony, grove-like upland (Oxalis-Myrtillus forest type) in Southern Finland. This study gives additional results to the publication Folia Forestalia 386/1979.
At this early stage, the growth of the spruce stand was clearly slower than that of the other species for all parameters to be measured (height, diameter, and volume growth). Height growth was most rapid in the silver birch stand and diameter growth in the larch stand. No clear differences were found in the mean volume of the 100 thickest trees in the stand between the larch and silver birch.
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The purpose of the present study is to throw light on the termination of diameter growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in old age in northernmost Finnish Lapland. The material consists of thirty over-mature, dying or already dead standing trees grown in natural state. In 1907 the stand was marked for cutting, but the harvest was never carried through. Now the old labels served as a means for cross-dating the year of the final termination of growth.
It was found that as pine becomes senile its annual ring formation becomes incomplete. At first diameter growth stops in the middle part of the stem, then at the butt end, and at last on the canopy level. No correlation between the mean temperature of July and the dying of the tree was found. The average age for dying for the pine in the stand was 420–450 years. After the tree has died it takes about 35–40 years before it has become a silvery, branchless dead bole.
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This lecture discusses the problem of the annual variation in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), and its significance. A newly constructed instrument for field measurements of diameter growth is described, also the latest of the Royal College of Forestry’s series of machines for annual ring measurement. The method of constructing an annual ring index is also mentioned.
Examination of material from undisturbed stands in Northern Sweden has shown that the annual ring index series for pine are characterised by a relatively marked autocorrelation, which increases with latitude, implying that the annual ring index for a given calendar year is positively correlated with that for the year immediately preceding it. However, this seems not to be so in spruce, in which the annual ring index series is marked by the effect of the changes in cone production from the year to year. The annual ring index for spruce may be expressed in the form of climatic functions, according to which the index can be approximately calculated or known values of the meteorological variables contained in the function, in association with numerical expressions for the cone production. By means of a number of examples illustrating annual ring series from thinned stands. It is shown finally how the response to thinning can be presented in a more essential form from the variation in the annual rings, and how climatically corrected increment can be determined.
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The Forest Research Institute of Finland has established permanent sample plots to survey the effect of thinnings on the stands. This study compares the development of tended and natural Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands growing on three different forest types: Oxalis-Myrtillus, Vaccinium and Calluna site type. The effect of heavy thinning from below (Oxalis-Myrtillus and Vaccinium site types) and increment felling (Calluna site type) was assessed by dividing the trees of the stands in tree classification classes according to their crown storey and defects.
The results show that thinning from below and increment thinning increase the proportion of trees in the 1st crown storey, which is already large in the natural stands. Also the diameter distribution is more even and the mean diameter higher after the thinnings.
In Scots pine stands in natural state, volume increment per stem is highest in the 1st crown storey and diminishes strongly towards the lower crown storeys. Thinnings increased the increment. The study indicates that many of the objectives of the intermediate cuttings, including promoting the growth of the best trees and improving the quality of the stand, have in general been achieved. Consequently, the thinnings give means to achieve the most valuable yield in the stand.
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Discs were collected from sample trees of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in different types of peatlands and mineral soil sites in Kajaani, Rovaniemi, Kuusamo; Suojärvi, Pielisjärvi, Evo and Lokalahti in Finland. The growth ring series of the different areas reach as far as in the 1600th century in some sample plots. The diameter growth shows patterns that repeat in cycles of 7, 11, 21, 35 and 70 years. However, the cycles are not exactly equally long. The average lengths of the cycles are relatively similar both in peatlands and in mineral soil sites.
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Only about 24,000 hectares of peatlands have been drained in the state lands by the 1921. The aim of this study was to define how much the growth of the trees in the drained peatland revives. Sample plots were measured in previously drained peatlands that had sufficient Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) tree stand. A stem analysis was performed to one of the sample trees. The evenness of the stands was dependent on how evenly the peatlands had dried when the stand was regenerated. Thus, the sample stands were not always fully stocked. However, they had capacity to develop towards evenly structured forests as the peatlands continued to dry further. The diameter and height growth of the dried peatlands have corresponded the similar stands in mineral soil sites. In trees that have grown stunted in the peatlands, the diameter growth seems to increase faster than the height growth. The volume growth is slightly smaller than in the similar mineral soil sites due to less favorable stem form. After the draining, the roots of the trees continued to grow from the old branches of root, but start then to form new roots. When the ground water level drops, the root layer grows deeper.
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The height and diameter growth measured from different Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands in Southern Finland was compared with meteorological information. The height growth benefits from warm weather in late summer in the previous year, and especially from high temperatures in June. Precipitation or the temperature in the same year did not affect the height growth. Diameter growth benefits from high temperatures in the spring of the same year, especially in April. High precipitation in the spring has in some cases negative impact on the diameter growth. The different combinations of precipitation and temperature can have variable effects on tree growth. In the diameter growth was seen a periodicity that coincides with sunspots.
Tree growth is one of the factors that have been used to determine the site quality. The aim of the study was to show that growth of single trees growing on a same forest site class are similar, but differ from trees growing on a different site type. To compare the tree growth, a stem analysis was performed to dominant trees in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands, measured in 15 Myrtillus type sample plots and in 15 Calluna type sample plots in state forests in Salmi, situated in north side of Lake Ladoga. The height growth when the tree was young was higher in the trees growing in the Myrtillus type than in the Calluna type. Also, the trees of same age are higher in Myrtillus type stand than in the Calluna type. In Calluna type, the height growth, however, evens out later in age than in the Myrtillus type. The volume growth of the trees begins to increase earlier in Myrtillus type, and is higher than in Calluna type. Similarly, the diameter growth in breast height is higher in the Myrtillus type.
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The present study is an attempt to establish the response to drainage of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) on some peatland sites, and to determine the revival of the trees and continuance of the growth after drainage. Growth of trees in four types of peatland types of drained peatlands drained between 1908-1918 were studied, and the results were compared with corresponding mineral soil sites
In pine the response to drainage was faster than in spruce in all age classes. Even the oldest groups of trees showed as good growth as trees of the same size growing on mineral soils. The rapidity of revival and the radial growth maximum are affected by the age of the tree at the time of ditching and the site fertility. The size of the trees, too, is of importance for the magnitude of post-drainage radial growth; the influence is similar in different sites. The basal area growth of trees growing on peat usually showed an unbroken increase during the entire post-drainage period. Neither the height growth indicates a decline in growth over time.
In the light of the results from sample tree analysis, it seems that tree growth gradually rises even after the revival period in peatlands originally covered by forest. The are some errors in the comparisons made, but it can be observed that aging of drainage areas as such does not mean that growth conditions become poorer.
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