Comparison of tree growth and undergrowth development in aerially seeded and planted Pinus tabulaeformis forests |
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Authors: | Guolei Li Yong Liu Lvyi Ma Ruiheng Lv Haiqun Yu Shulan Bai Yaoyao Kang |
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Institution: | (1) Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Conservation, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China;(2) College of Forestry, Inner Mongolia Agriculture University, Huhhot, 010019, China |
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Abstract: | Direct seeding is a less expensive practice than planting and has the potential to become a viable alternative to transplanting
for afforestation and regeneration purposes. As an effective and a less costly regeneration method, aerial seeding has been
applied with several tree species. As early as 1956, Chinese people engaged in aerial seeding and stands with a total of 2.97×107 hm2 have been developed up to 2004. Our study tested whether the growth of planted Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) seedlings and its undergrowth development in northwest aspects differ from that of aerially sown seedlings on the
northern and northwestern aspects of slopes. In 2007, we collected data such as height, diameter at breast height (DBH), clear
bole height and canopy widths of trees, abundance, coverage, and frequency of shrubs and herbs from 21-year-old planted Chinese
pine stands on a northwestern aspect (PNW), aerially sown stands in a northwest aspect (ANW) and aerially sown stands in a
northern aspect (AN). Results showed that the relation of crown area and mean DBH was best fitted by a double inverse model
for the ANW and AN forests and by a quadratic model for the PNW forest. There was no difference in the growth between ANW
and AN forests, while growth was significantly higher in the PNW forest than in the ANW and AN forests. That was consistent
with the Sorenson diversity indices in the shrub and herb layers, indicating that there was a large number of the same species
in both aerially seeded stands, although their locations were different. Both the number of species in the undergrowth and
the Shannon-Wiener index in the shrub layer were higher in the PNW stands than in the ANW and AN stands. Dominant families
for all three stands were Rosaceae and Compositae in the shrub and herb layer, respectively. The dominant species for all
three stands was Spiraea pubescens in the shrub layer, while the dominant species was different from each other in the three stands. The discrepancy in diversity
and composition of species in the herb layer show that herbs are sensitive to shrubs in the three forests. High mortality
and skewed diameter distributions reflect severe competition and too high a density in the aerially seeded forests. Thus,
aerial seeding is a viable and effective regeneration technique, but management practices, such as thinning, should be applied
to these forests. |
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Keywords: | Pinus tabulaeformis growth undergrowth aerial seeding planting slope aspect |
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