Abstract
Key messageTrees with otherwise equal dimensions have different leaf areas if they are located in different stand types. While leaf area of European larch is affected by mixture proportion, leaf area of Norway spruce is affected by stand density.ContextLeaf area is a key parameter for evaluating growth efficiency of trees, and therefore needs to be measured as consistently and accurately as possible. This is even more important when comparing monospecific and mixed stands.AimsThe aim of the study is to find combinations of parameters and allometric relationships that can be used to estimate accurately the leaf area of individual trees.MethodsAllometries of the measured leaf area of 194 trees in 12 stands were analysed in order to find variables affecting leaf area. Existing functions from the literature were validated. Finally, models were fitted to find the most appropriate method for estimating leaf area of mixed and monospecific stands of Norway spruce and European larch.ResultsAllometric relationships of leaf area to other measurable characteristics of trees vary in different stand types. Besides individual tree dimensions such as diameter and crown surface area, leaf area of Norway spruce is related to stand density, whereas the leaf area of European larch is dependent on the admixture of Norway spruce in the stand.ConclusionIn contrast to models for estimating individual tree leaf area of Norway spruce, models for leaf area of European larch have to consider mixture proportions in order to correctly interpret the growth efficiency of mixed stands.
Highlights
The crown of a tree is where the tree interacts with the atmosphere, forming one of the key interfaces within the soil-plantair-continuum (SPAC)
With the aim of developing such a robust model for estimation of leaf area, we investigated the leaf area of European larch and Norway spruce in stands with different proportions of the two species in order to identify allometric relationships that reflect the quantitative effect of mixture on the leaf area estimation
For Norway spruce, in contrast, the differences were small and not significant (p = 0.608). This indicates that a model for estimating leaf area of European larch would need one or more additional parameters characterizing the mixture
Summary
The crown of a tree is where the tree interacts with the atmosphere, forming one of the key interfaces within the soil-plantair-continuum (SPAC). Light availability is one of the central factors that drive or limit tree growth; Gspaltl et al (2013) found that light use efficiency could be sufficiently approximated by leaf area efficiency. This means that leaf area is a valuable measure for Annals of Forest Science (2017) 74: 8 the evaluation of growth efficiency (see Waring et al (1980), Binkley and Reid (1984), O’Hara (1988, 1996), Berrill and O’Hara (2007) and Gspaltl et al (2012)). If one species of the mixed stand does not occur within the 100 largest trees, the dominant height cannot be determined for this species. Integrating stand characteristics into the leaf area estimation method in mixed stands requires more sophisticated models
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