European Journal of Forest Research

The inland region of Galicia (NW Spain) marks the boundary between the Atlantic climate of the coastal area and the typical Mediterranean climate of central Spain. Compared to the Atlantic coast, climate in this area has a pronounced summer drought, lower annual precipitation, and higher annual thermal oscillation. Despite the high productivity and ecological importance of maritime pine in inland Galicia, local forest reproductive material (FRM) of high genetic quality is not available for this area. Seed sources originating elsewhere and of unknown adaptation to this area are commonly used for reforestation. With the aim of finding new sources of FRM for this region and exploiting the genetic gains of existing breeding programmes, we analysed the performance in field conditions of improved families of the Coastal Galicia (CG) and Western Australia (WA) breeding programmes. Growth, stem characteristics and branch habit were evaluated in five progeny trials established following a coastal-to-inland gradient. Likelihood-based analyses were used to estimate genetic correlations between environments and to test statistically for causes and patterns of genotype × environment interaction. Because of the strong non-random spatial structures and heterogeneity of residual variances, the analyses were carried out using heterogeneous residual variance mixed models on spatially adjusted data. The results indicated that there is not sufficient evidence to subdivide Galicia into the two current deployment areas. Interaction patterns do not reveal significant differences between zones, and crossover interactions for height growth are present both between and within areas. On the inland sites, the Atlantic improved materials clearly outperformed unimproved seedlots tested in adjacent provenance trials, suggesting the feasibility of using both the CG and WA breeding materials as sources of FRM for reforestation in inland Galicia. Of the two, the WA material showed excellent results for all traits. The inclusion of this material into the Galician maritime pine breeding population should be strongly considered.

It has been argued that large ungulates play a key role in natural forest dynamics, but in Britain, the largest native ungulates (aurochs and elk) are extinct. Cattle could have some similar effects, and are widely used, but rarely tested, for nature conservation management. Here, we test conservation management with cattle at a native Scots pine Pinus sylvestris forest in Scotland. Our hypotheses were that cattle impacts would (a) increase the abundance of an understorey shrub of conservation importance, bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus; and (b) increase Scots pine seedling establishment. Two cattle trials were established, one for each objective, based on a 14-ha plot within the forest, and a 6.1-ha plot at the forest edge. Cattle were introduced for 2 months to both plots, giving an approximately 100- to 150-fold increase in ungulate biomass per hectare when compared to background deer abundance. The ground layer vegetation in both treatment and matched control plots was monitored before and after treatment, and subsequently over a 4-year period. At the within-forest trial, bilberry percent-cover, 4 years after treatment, was 1.9 times higher in the cattle area than in the control (95% confidence limits 1.6–2.3). Bilberry percent-cover increases were directly related to the degree of trampling impact on heather Calluna vulgaris, as recorded immediately after the trial. At the forest-edge trial, there were vegetation changes in the cattle plot that were considered favourable to pine seedling establishment: reduced moss/litter depth and vegetation percent-cover, and increased ground-level light incidence. However, too few new pine seedlings were found for formal analysis, partly due to unexpectedly low seed-fall. Nevertheless, the potential for cattle to create conditions that would subsequently promote pine regeneration was illustrated by the observation of large numbers of new, young pine seedlings at the within-forest cattle plot. We recommend that managers and researchers collaborate to develop further trials like the ones reported here, to give an improved understanding of the conditions under which cattle can yield nature conservation benefits in woodlands.

Fine roots absorb nutrients and water for photosynthesizing leaves, which in return provide them with hydrocarbon products. Knowledge of the fine root biomass (FRB) at the individual tree level and its relationships with other components related to tree growth, especially leaves aboveground, is scarce. Therefore, we reviewed the FRB of major forest-forming species using a database of 518 forest stands compiled from the literature, including 21 tree species and 16 shrub species, in order to confirm the relationships between environmental or forest stand variables and FRB at the stand and tree levels, and we further determine the relationships between fine roots belowground and leaves aboveground. Correlations between FRB and site characteristics (latitude, elevation, age, density, and basal area) appeared to be species-specific. There were hardly any significant correlations between stand FRB and latitude, elevation, stand age and stand density. Tree FRB was better correlated with tree basal area than stand FRB with stand basal area. There was a significant linear relationship between tree FRB and tree basal area. In addition, individual FRB was significantly linearly related to leaf biomass for all analyzed species. When these species were grouped into coniferous and deciduous, or all species together, there were still significant linear relationships between tree FRB and tree basal area and leaf biomass. The ratios of FRB to leaf biomass varied between and among species and even among regions for the same species. For both Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris, the ratio of FRB to leaf biomass was negatively related to the ratio of annual actual evapotranspiration to annual potential evapotranspiration, which was an indicator of water availability.

Twenty years after the application of dolomitic limestone to a well growing, mature Norway spruce stand at Höglwald, Southern Germany an amount of magnesium equal to the input by liming has left the rooting zone. However, 80% of the applied calcium was retained by the ecosystem. A detailed biomass investigation was carried out in order to elaborate whether the stand shows any nutritional benefits and if the aboveground tree biomass represents a sink for calcium and magnesium after liming. Stem wood, bark, branches, twigs, and needles were analysed for the major nutrients. Needles showed higher calcium and magnesium concentrations and significantly lower potassium concentrations on the limed plot. Surprisingly, limed trees had significantly lower magnesium concentrations in the bark but higher concentrations in twigs and needles than unlimed trees. In addition, significantly lower concentrations for potassium, sulphur, and phosphorus were measured in the bark of limed trees, whereas the element concentrations in the wood were rather similar between the two treatments. The low potassium concentrations in bark and needles indicate an impeded potassium uptake after liming presumably due to a calcium potassium antagonism. Magnesium is probably used to compensate the relative lack of potassium. The small differences in the calculated nutrient storage of limed and unlimed trees, however, suggest that the aboveground biomass can be excluded as a relevant sink for the applied calcium and magnesium at the Höglwald site.