The relative importance of soil properties and regional climate as drivers of productivity in southern Patagonia’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nothofagus antarctica</Emphasis> forests

Key message

Soil texture and temperature-related variables were the variables that most contributed to Nothofagus antarctica forest height in southern Patagonia. This information may be useful for improving forest management, for instance related to the establishment of silvopastoral systems or selection of suitable sites for forest reforestation in southern Patagonia.

Context

Changes in forest productivity result from a combination of climate, topography, and soil properties.

Aims

The relative importance of edaphic and climatic variables as drivers of productivity in Nothofagus antarctica forests of southern Patagonia, Argentina, was evaluated.

Methods

A total of 48 mature stands of N. antarctica were selected. For each study site, we measured the height of three mature dominant trees, as an indicator of productivity. Seven soil, five spatial, and 19 climatic features were determined and related to forest productivity. Through partial least squares regression analyses, we obtained a model that was an effective predictor of height of mature dominant trees in the regional data set presented here.

Results

The four variables that most contributed to the predictive power of the model were altitude, temperature annual range, soil texture, and temperature seasonality.

Conclusion

The information gathered in this study suggested that the incidence of the soil and temperature-related variables on the height of dominant trees, at the regionally evaluated scale, was higher than the effect of water-related variables.

     

Untersuchungen zum notwendigen Maß bei der Anwendung von Pflanzenschutzmitteln in Winterweizen in den Jahren 2004 bis 2016

In order to provide recommendations for future cropping systems with regard to the necessary minimum of pesticide use, a long-term field trial at the field site in Dahnsdorf of the Julius Kühn-Institute was conducted in the years 2004 to 2016 to investigate possible reduction of pesticides, taking into account the general principles of integrated pest management (Strategies to reduce the use of plant protection products). Two winter wheats (WW1 and WW2) were part of the crop rotation with six components and different quality classes (A wheat (WW1) and E wheat (WW2)) and resistance levels to important wheat pathogens. In all years, herbicides and fungicides were needed to control weeds and fungal pathogens due to the excess of the control threshold. Insecticides were only necessary in two years. When considering the treatment frequency index (TFI), the mean overall TFI varied with 2.6 in WW1 and 3.5 in WW2, but was significantly lower compared to practice. There were also differences in the mean fungicide TFI of the two crop rotation elements with 1.1 in WW1 and 1.6 in WW2 due to their different resistance level to important fungal pathogens. The same is true with regard to the herbicide TFI with of 1.1 in WW1 and 1.3 in WW2. The treatments in the strategies 2, 3 and 4 mostly resulted in significantly higher yields compared to the non-chemical strategy 1, which can be attributed to the strong weed and fungal infestations in strategy 1 and the good efficacy of the used plant protection products. The tended differences between strategy 2 with a situation-related application rate and the 25 and 50% reduced application rates in strategies 3 and 4, respectively, were not significant. A reduced application rate showed no negative long-term effects on weed emergence even after 13 years, but increased emergence numbers in strategies with reduced herbicide use. The results show that plant protection products savings are possible without significantly reducing yields. However, this requires a high level of human resources for monitoring and scoring the consistent observance of the principles of integrated pest management, such as the consideration of good crop rotation, the cultivation of resistant cultivars and the optimally coordinated treatments after the control threshold has been exceeded.     

Effects of drought on weed emergence and growth vary with the seed burial depth and presence of a cover crop

In conservation agriculture, weed seed germination could decrease with the presence of a cover crop, surface weed seed location and temporal drought in summer just after seed shedding. This study simultaneously examined the effects of a cover crop, burial depth (seed location) and hydric stress on weed emergence and early growth. It was hypothesized that drought would reduce weed emergence and the initial growth of weed seeds and that this effect would be greater when the seeds were on the soil surface and in the presence of a cover crop. Four annual weed species were chosen that are frequently found (Anisantha sterilis, Vulpia myuros, Sonchus asper, Veronica persica) and not frequently found (Alopecurus myosuroides, Poa annua, Cyanus segetum, Capsella bursa‐pastoris) in fields that implement conservation agriculture. The unburied seeds had 26% lower emergence, on average, than the buried seeds (significant for six of the eight species), hydric stress reduced emergence by 20% (for seven of the eight species) and the presence of a cover crop reduced the level of emergence by 17% (for all species). The unburied seeds with hydric stress were emerging under the “most stressful” set of factors, with a 45% decrease in emergence, compared with the seeds emerging under the “least stressful” set of factors (buried seeds without hydric stress). All the weed growth measurements (height, dry matter content and number of leaves) decreased with the presence of a cover crop. The species that are found frequently in the fields that implement conservation agriculture, compared with the species that are not frequently found in conservation agriculture fields, had higher rates of germination and a higher tolerance of hydric stress when their seeds were unburied.