Bioproductivity of spruce stands in northern European Russia

The bioproductivity of forest ecosystems in terms of forest succession and biodiversity has been studied in northern European Russia near Arkhangelsk since the 1930s. The relationship between forest productivity and forest treatments (thinning and other silvicultural practices) is still not well understood. In this paper, results are reported for spruce-birch stands of natural origin that have undergone thinnings of various intensities over the past 30 years. Changes in stand aboveground and root biomass were recorded in a series of re-measurements and for a series of different thinning intensities and are reported here. A number of biotic and abiotic factors play important roles in determining the productivity and the distribution in biomass components. These factors are changed by thinning treatments. Thus the productivity and structure of foliage as well as other aboveground and belowground biomass components were found to be dependent on the density and spatial distribution of the trees in the stand; production of merchantable stem-wood was also influenced by thinning treatments. The optimum density needed for maximum stand production, however, need not always be best from the economic perspective.