Abstract
We transformed a Pinus massoniana plantation, the most important conifer plantation in southern China, with four different transformation treatments, in which Pinus massoniana was thinned to a density of 70%, and then differing richness and compositions of enrichment plantings were added. In order to examine the effects of the transformation, we compared species composition, stand structure and growth pattern in transformed stands with those in control stands. The results suggested that in the transformed stands species composition was diverse with trees both from the enrichment plantings and from natural recruitment. The size structure was changed such that the diameter at breast height (DBH) distribution tended to shift from a nearly normal distribution to an irregular multi-modal distribution. Substantial new ingrowth was found in the small DBH classes. The residual trees in the transformed stands were significantly larger than in the control treatment. However, for all trees, the control stands had the largest mean size, even though the residual tree growth was significantly smaller in the control stands. Finally, transformation treatment A4, which had the smallest overall mortality rate and simultaneously the mortality rate of each tree species was smaller than the corresponding value in other transformation treatments, was identified as the optimal transformation.
Highlights
Pinus massoniana, one of the most prevalent plantation tree species in southern China, covers a total area of 12 million hectares and accounts for 7.74% of the total arboreal forest area in China [1].Similar to other plantations, this monoculture conifer stand suffers from relatively low stability, low ecological services, and high susceptibility to disturbance [2,3]
Trees derived from the enrichment plantings and from natural regeneration had grown into the overstory
Our findings suggested that in the transformation treatments the species composition in either the overstory or the understory was diverse while the control treatment almost only consisted of the originally planted species
Summary
One of the most prevalent plantation tree species in southern China, covers a total area of 12 million hectares and accounts for 7.74% of the total arboreal forest area in China [1].Similar to other plantations, this monoculture conifer stand suffers from relatively low stability, low ecological services, and high susceptibility to disturbance [2,3]. In Central Europe, transforming single-species even-aged conifer stands into more irregular uneven-aged stand structures of multiple species has been widely adopted by foresters [8,9,10]. Stands of mixed species will continue to have economic value but will provide a range of benefits, including greater resilience to climate change, increased wind stability, and improved biodiversity value [2,11,12]. Facing worsening environmental problems and increasing demands for ecological benefits from forest ecosystems, the forest sector in China has gradually started to focus on multi-purpose management rather than only on timber production as in the past [4,13]. Transforming single-species even-aged plantation to uneven-aged mixed forest is the first step in multi-purpose forest management [14,15]
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