Abstract
Scots pine growth trends have been determined in Brandenburg (eastern Germany) since the early 1960s. We investigated the interactions between recognized causal factors such temperature, precipitation and foliage nutrient contents in Scots pine and radial and height growth. We performed height stem analysis on 63 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees on seven sites from long-term research plots. Variations in the nutritional condition of the seven stands have been recorded by means of needle analysis. The relationship between thermal, mean monthly temperature, and pluvial conditions, total monthly precipitation, and tree radial increments was analysed, using methods of correlation, response function and principal components analysis. Temporal trends of height growth changes in relation to levels of foliar nitrogen and phosphorous contents were analysed. Evapotranspiration index was correlated with height growth deviation values, with indications of different stands behaviour. A distinct rise in N-levels and in the dry weight of needles has become evident. N and P ratio from declining plots was found to have significantly higher values as compared to that from non-declining plots.
Highlights
Increased plant growth in the northern latitudes during last decades has been detected by different researchers and under different approaches (Myneni et al, 1997; Field et al, 1998)
The increment changes reported may be due to different changing or varying growth-limiting factors. Possible mechanisms behind this increased in forest resources include: (i) elevated CO2 stimulating photosynthesis (Bazzaz et al, 1990; Bazzaz and Williams, 1991), (ii) climate (Spiecker, 1995), and (iii) increased carbon fixation in terms of plant growth resulting from widespread deposition of nitrogen (Townsend et al, 1996)
After the autoregressive moving average (ARIMA) modelling, we calculated the mean values for each year and site of the individual indexes («residual» chronologies) using the biweight robust mean to reduce bias caused by extreme values of increment indices that do not exist in chronologies of other trees (Cook and Kairiukstis, 1990)
Summary
Increased plant growth in the northern latitudes during last decades has been detected by different researchers and under different approaches (Myneni et al, 1997; Field et al, 1998). The increment changes reported may be due to different changing or varying growth-limiting factors Possible mechanisms behind this increased in forest resources include: (i) elevated CO2 stimulating photosynthesis (Bazzaz et al, 1990; Bazzaz and Williams, 1991), (ii) climate (Spiecker, 1995), and (iii) increased carbon fixation in terms of plant growth resulting from widespread deposition of nitrogen (Townsend et al, 1996). The combination of individual tree analysis data with permanent research plot and environmental data forms the data base for detecting anomalies in forest growth. Together with forest growth data, at stand level, FFE made available the Brandenburg forest growth and yield tables (Lembcke, 2000) These yield tables were built based on data of height stem analysis on dominant trees and by using differential equations. Chronological-biological age is considered as the age measured at the stump of the dominant trees
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