Coppice Management for Young Sycamore Maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Sycamore is a valuable tree not only economically but also ecological and culturally. Even though it has a vigorous regeneration system from its stump, its coppice management has triggered limited formal investigations. Therefore, the present study focused on finding the most suitable coppice strategy for achieving ground coverage and biomass, as well as developing growth and yield models for sycamore maples. Using a series of eight measurements spanning twenty-one years, starting from age six, we found that single-shoot coppices provided superior yields for height than seed-managed trees up to age twelve and up to age twenty for DBH. The coppice trees outperformed the seed trees up to age 10. The yield of DBH and the height for single-shoots and seed-managed trees were described by parsimonious formulations, namely the Schumacher model for DBH and the square root for height. The relationship of DBH–height exhibited a clear linear form, pointing toward the main limitation of the study, namely the confinement to ages less than 20 years. Nevertheless, all the models exhibited a bias <10−7 and an R2 around 80%, except for the height and DBH change throughout time, which was around 67%.