The Destructive Static Tree-Pulling Test Provides Reliable Estimates of the Soil–Root Plate of Eastern Baltic Silver Birch (Betula pendula Roth.)

Abstract

Under the intensifying cyclonic activity, the wind resistance of European forests could be increased through science-based adaptive forest management, which requires the quantification of tree stability. In this regard, the dimensions of the soil–root plate can be directly attributed to tree wind resistance; however, naturally uprooted trees might be a biased source of information for the evaluation of adaptive measures due to uncontrolled conditions and uneven sample size. Therefore, the dimensions of the soil–root plates of naturally windthrown silver birch trees (Betula pendula Roth.) are compared to artificially overturned trees under a static tree-pulling test in Eastern Baltic region. The application of static tree-pulling overestimated the dimensions of the soil–root plates of silver birch compared to windthrown trees. The overestimation of soil–root plate dimensions was consistent spatially and across soil types, which is likely a regional adaptation to local wind climate. This implies that static tree-pulling is representative of the assessment of the effects of adaptive management on tree stability via the dimensions of the soil–root plates.