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Table 1 Site characteristics, species compositions, experimental designs and mean tree dimensions (standard deviations in parentheses) for the five stands used

From: Using a stand-level model to predict light absorption in stands with vertically and horizontally heterogeneous canopies

 

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Species

Eucalyptus nitens

Eucalyptus grandis / Acacia mangium

Acacia hybrid (A. mangium x A. auriculiformis) / Hopea odorata

Castanopsis eyrei / Castanopsis sclerophylla / Cunninghamia lanceolata / Cyclobalanopsis glauca / Liquidambar formosana

Abies alba / Fagus sylvatica / Picea abies

Location

Carrajung, Victoria, Australia (38°23′S, 146°41′E)

Itatinga experimental station, southern Brazil (23°2′S, 48°38′W)

Phu Loc, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam (16°18'N, 107°42'E)

Shitai county, Anhui Province, China (29°59′-30°24′N, 117°12′-117°59′ E )

Black Forest, Swabian-Franconian Forest, and south-western Swabian Alp, Germany (47°44′N to 48°56′N, 7°58′E to 9°34′E)

Site and stand characteristics

Mean annual precipitation 1124 mm. Minor slope (<10%). Examined from age 3.4 to 8.1 years, leaf area index 1.5 to 5.1, 291 to 935 trees per ha.

Mean annual precipitation 1360 mm. Minor slope (<3%). Examined for a rotation, between 1 and 6 years, leaf area index up to about 4.7, from 1111 to 2222 trees per ha.

Mean annual precipitation > 3500 mm. Minor slope (<5%). Examined when Acacia hybrid were 3 years old and H. odorata were 1 to 2 years old. Leaf area index of 4.6 (strip design) and 3.4 (circular design).

Mean annual precipitation is about 1200 mm. Level to very steep slopes (up to 107%). Leaf area index of 1.3 to 10.2, from 88 to 2829 trees per ha. Tree ages were 20–31 / 16–49 / 15–25 / 20 / 16–36 years.

Mean annual precipitation from 941 to 1850 mm, Level to slopes of 51%. About 100 years old, leaf area index of 1.4 to 7.7, 184 to 757 trees per ha.

Design*

Monospecific plantation with unthinned (about 900 trees per ha) plots and plots thinned down to 300 trees per ha at age 3.2 years. These were unfertilised and fertilised with 300 kg N per ha at age 3.2 years. Plots of about 23 m x 32 m surrounded by buffers of about 5 m with the same treatment.

Monospecific plots of each species (1111 trees per ha) and (additive) mixtures containing 1111 E. grandis trees per ha + 277, 555 or 1111 A. mangium trees per ha and (replacement) mixtures containing 555 trees per ha of each species. 18 m x 18 m plots surrounded by 6 m buffers of the same treatment.

Three mixed-species plots. Two strip plantings where H. odorata seedlings were planted in strip gaps (5- or 7.5-m wide) between rows of Acacia hybrid. In the third experiment, a circular gap 22-m in diameter was made in 3 year old Acacia hybrid that was planted at a spacing of 2 m x 2 m. Within this circular gap (and 1 m away from the gap under the Acacia hybrid canopy) H. odorata seedlings were planted at a spacing of 2 m x 2 m.

49 plots with a radius of 10 m were established in a native forest and adjacent C. lanceolata plantations. Some plots contained additional species but these contributed a maximum (by trees per ha or basal area) of 10%.

Mixed-species forest plots on 6 sites, each containing four thinning treatments. Plot sizes were 50 m x 50 m or 60 m x 60 m. The outer 10 m of these plots were buffers.

   

Strip design

Circular design

  

Species proportions by trees per ha

100%

0% to 100%

87% / 13%

58% / 42%

0% to 100%

14 % to 100% / 0% to 56% / 0% to 83%

Mean number of live stems per ha at age of simulation

659 (370)

870 / 511

927 / 139

1267 / 916

90 / 802 / 1197 / 353 / 207

121 / 94 / 85

Mean height (m)

13.1 (3.3)

5.4 (0.7) to 24.4 (3.1) / 2.5 (0.7) to 11.3 (3.8)

13.5 (1.43) / 1.5 (0.22)

14.6 (1.56) / 1.4 (0.33)

8.3 (1.7) / 10.2 (1.9) / 10.4 (1.7) / 8.8 (2.0) / 13.1 (1.5)

27.1 (8.7) / 23.3 (6.0) / 32.2 (2.9)

Mean height to crown base (m)

3.5 (2.9)

0.9 (0.001) to 18.4 (2.27) / 0.1 (0.02) to 5.5 (1.42)

4.5 (1.54) / 0.2 (0.03)

10.7 (1.49) / 0.2 (0.03)

2.2 (0.7) / 4.2 (0.8) / 4.6 (1.0) / 3.1 (1.7) / 5.0 (1.5)

15.4 (5.4) / 10.3 (2.5) / 14.5 (1.9)

Mean live-crown length (m)

9.8 (2.4)

4.5 (0.7) to 6.0 (1.5) / 2.4 (0.7) to 5.8 (2.6)

8.9 (1.6) / 1.2 (0.22)

4 (1.02) / 1.1 (0.34)

6.1 (0.9) / 6.0 (1.6) / 5.9 (1.8) / 5.8 (0.9) / 8.0 (1.6)

11.6 (3.9) / 13.2 (3.5) / 17.6 (2.6)

Mean stem diameter at 1.3 m (cm)

16.8 (4.3)

5.1 (0.8) to 16.5 (2.8) / 2.4 (0.8) to 10.9 (5.0)

10.6 (2.12) / 1.2 (0.15)**

9.6 (2.07) / 1.2 (0.27)**

10.2 (3.9) / 19.0 (5.0) / 15.2 (3.6) / 11.5 (1.8) / 18.1 (5.1)

41.7 (15.3) / 25.5 (8.5) / 45.9 (8.8)

Mean crown radius (m)

2.1 (0.53)

1.3 (0.1) to 1.5 (0.3) / 0.8 (0.4) to 1.9 (0.5)

1.6 (0.36) / 0.5 (0.08)

1.1 (0.25) / 0.4 (0.12)

2.3 (0.6) / 3.1 (0.7) / 1.8 (0.2) / 2.2 (0.3) / 4.1 (1.1)

2.8 (0.61) / 2.4 (0.31) / 2.8 (0.43)

Mean tree leaf area (m2)

60 (32)

33.0 (10.8) to 35.6 (13.5) / 3.0 (1.5) to 26.6 (18.0)

49.8 (24.56) / 0.8 (0.24)

26.3 (19.76) / 0.7 (0.71)

40.8 (13.3) / 28.4 (10.5) / 34.6 (21.6) / 30.3 (7.7) / 109.3 (50.3)

209 (105) / 122 (65) / 231 (70.9)

Mean leaf-area density (m2 m−3)

0.62 (0.077)

1.92 (0.29) to 1.30 (0.30) / 0.79 (0.01) to 0.54 (0.03)

1.03 / 1.38

2.77 / 1.73

0.63 (0.09) / 0.27 (0.09) / 0.84 (0.12) / 0.53 (−)/ 0.40 (0.08)

1.05 (0.24) / 0.79 (0.14) / 0.77 (0.11)

References

Forrester et al. [2013]

le Maire et al. [2013]

Dong [2014]

 

Guisasola [2014]

Forrester and Albrecht [2014] (only used the 4th growing period)

  1. *The buffer mentioned here was part of the experimental design and was within the 25 m buffer created using mean plot information for the simulations.
  2. **due to the young age and small size of H. odorata trees their diameters were measured at 0.3 m.