Sugar maple and yellow birch regeneration in response to canopy opening, liming and vegetation control in a temperate deciduous forest of Quebec

Gasser, Dodick; Messier, Christian; Beaudet, Marilou et Lechowicz, Martin J. (2010). « Sugar maple and yellow birch regeneration in response to canopy opening, liming and vegetation control in a temperate deciduous forest of Quebec ». Forest Ecology and Management, 259, pp. 2006-2014.

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Résumé

We examined how the density, growth and survival of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) and yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) regeneration are influenced by gap size, soil nutrient availability and understory vegetation. We used a factorial combination of (1) three gap sizes (small: <100m2; medium: 100–300m2; large: ∼1000m2); (2) presence/absence of liming (92% CaCO3 at 500 kg ha−1, 1st year postharvest); and (3) presence/absence of vegetation control (weeding twice a year; 1st to 3rd year postharvest). Wemonitored height increment and survival of 1500 seedlings and saplings of both species from the 3rd to the 6th year post-harvest, and assessed density 6 years post-harvest. Both species exhibited a complex set of density, growth and survival responses across the combination of treatments. Compared to sugar maple, yellow birch had an overall lower density, greater growth, and similar survival rate; the two species attained maximum values in different gap size for density, and similar gap size for growth and survival. Liming had very little or no effect on the species. The growth of yellow birch was slightly but significantly greater when understory vegetation was controlled, particularly in medium and large gaps. These results suggest that a variety of canopy gap sizes can provide the right combination of understory conditions for regenerating these two functionally different tree species.

Type: Article de revue scientifique
Mots-clés ou Sujets: Shade tolerance, regeneration, vegetation cover, light availability, forest floor disturbance, soil pH, soil nutrient availability, calcium
Unité d'appartenance: Centres institutionnels > Centre d'étude de la forêt (CEF)
Faculté des sciences > Département des sciences biologiques
Déposé par: Christian Messier
Date de dépôt: 23 août 2010 12:46
Dernière modification: 01 nov. 2014 02:15
Adresse URL : http://archipel.uqam.ca/id/eprint/3316

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