Abstract
A study to determine the effects of environmental conditions on the growth of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) was initiated in 1969 on the Escambia Experimental Forest near Brewton, Alabama, USA. This study sample consisted of forty young naturally regenerated, even aged longleaf pine seedlings evenly divided between two soil types. At the beginning of the study, the seedlings were 14 years from seed and ranged in height from 0.8 to 1.5 m. From 1969 to 1970, height and diameter measurements were recorded once to four times weekly during the growing seasons and once a month during the dormant seasons. To test the effects of shading on growth, cheesecloth was suspended over 10 randomly selected seedlings from each soil type only during the first growing season, from March 28 to September 24, 1969. This study provides data from the only known in-field shading experiment with longleaf pine seedlings of this size. The effects of the shading treatment and soil type were evaluated for height and diameter growth. The shading treatment did not have a significant effect on either height or diameter growth, but soil type had a significant effect on diameter growth. Key words: Pinus palustris, longleaf pine, shade, soil type, shade intolerance.
Highlights
Trees, like all terrestrial plants, are dependent on sunlight, carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and nutrients to survive and grow
The treatment seemed to have no significant effect on height growth of young longleaf pine over any of the intervals analyzed except for a larger average height growth for seedlings on the Wagram site when looking at growth over the two-year period
This study provides data from the only known in-field shading experiment with longleaf pine seedlings that had initiated height growth and were initially up to 1.5 m tall, which are very different from grass stage seedlings or controlled studies
Summary
Like all terrestrial plants, are dependent on sunlight, carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and nutrients to survive and grow. Growth on the most basic scale can be defined as an irreversible increase in the size or number of cells (Kramer and Boyer, 1995). Growth and maintenance are the main purposes of a tree’s metabolism and essential to a tree’s survival (Kramer and Boyer, 1995). Changes in the environment result in changes in a tree’s internal physiological processes like photosynthesis, respiration, and absorption of water and minerals, which in turn affect growth (Kozlowski and Pallardy, 1997). The desire to identify and understand the many relationships that exist between the environment and tree growth has influenced numerous research efforts, but often the answers found lead to more questions
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