The influence of forest growing conditions and stand composition on the growing stock of pine and spruce stands of Shimsky forest unit of the Novgorod region

Abstract

Using as an example one district forestry unit of the Novgorod region, located in two contrasting landscapes, we studied the formation of stands with different proportions of pine and spruce in the stand composition. The aim of the study was to study pure and mixed pine stands in a narrow range of forest growing conditions in order to identify economically valuable combinations and the most productive stands in terms of forest stand composition. To identify statistically significant differences between spruce and pine stands, a comparative analysis of the mean values and the coefficients of variation of forest inventory characteristics was used. The analysis of variance was used to find differences between stands of different composition. According to the results of the comparative analysis by forest type, the only significant difference in growing stock was between spruce stands of the herbaceous-meadow and fresh blueberry forest types. For the rest of the spruce forest types, no significant differences in growing stock were found. In terms of the growing stock, the most productive are forest stands with 60% of trees been spruce or pine, and pure pine stands in the green moss group of forest types in the given landscape conditions.