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Functional significance of forest biodiversity for timber quality - effects of interspecific competition on crown characteristics and stem properties

concluded 01/2018

Abstract

 
Forest management in many parts of Europe aims at the production of high quality timber. In addition, the creation and maintenance of mixed species stands to pursue objectives such as ecological stability and biodiversity conservation becoming increasingly important. In addition to certain operational and economic advantages in establishment, tending and harvesting mono-specific stands, quality development of such stands may be more homogenous than in mixed forest stands. However, apart from some well documented interspecific effects on tree quality, such as qualification of lower stem sections of valuable hardwoods by subdominant and suppressed shade-tolerant species, comprehensive knowledge about these interspecific influences is scarce and urgently needed for many tree species combinations across Europe. Therefore, the question how timber quality relates to the tree species diversity of forest stands is particularly interesting.
The objective is to determine (1) whether the variability in quality of tree stems increases with neighbourhood tree species diversity and (2) whether stem quality of individual trees is dependent on specific traits of neighbouring species. Individual tree timber quality parameters and neighbour tree crown and stem size/position data will enable us to model the effect of neighbour species on the target subject trees with respect to timber quality. Data on crown and stem characteristics of commercially important broadleaved tree species in 6 study regions throughout Europe will be collected and analyzed. Wherever possible, data and results from other working groups within FunDivEurope will be included in the analysis in order to enable a broad, comprehensive assessment of tree species diversity impacts on timber quality.
 

 

Supervision:Prof. Dr.  Jürgen Bauhus, Prof. Dr. Michael Scherer-Lorenzen
Researcher:
Funding:EU - FP7
Duration:Apr. 2011 - Mar. 2014
Partners:see at the homepage of  "FunDivEurope"

 

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