Article
Forestry
Bishnu Hari Wagle, Aaron R. Weiskittel, John-Pascal Berrill, Anil R. Kizha, Anthony W. D'Amato, David Marshall
Summary: This study examined the long-term effects of pre-commercial and commercial thinning on the growth of balsam fir and red spruce in spruce-fir forests. The results showed that thinning treatments significantly increased the growth of balsam fir in stands without pre-commercial thinning, while the growth of red spruce was more moderate. In stands with pre-commercial thinning, both species showed similar growth responses. Thinning treatments effectively reduced mean height diameter ratios and improved growth efficiency.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Bishnu Hari Wagle, Aaron R. Weiskittel, Anil R. Kizha, John-Pascal Berrill, Anthony W. D'Amato, David Marshall
Summary: This study quantified the long-term influences of thinning treatments on spruce-fir forests in northeastern North America. The findings suggest that early commercial thinning (CT) combined with pre-commercial thinning (PCT) can have long-term benefits in terms of tree size, merchantable volume, and financial value. However, light thinning in stands without PCT can maximize average merchantable stem size without compromising total stand value.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Ivan Bjelanovic, Phil Comeau, Sharon Meredith, Brian Roth
Summary: Studies in mixedwood stands show that precommercial thinning of aspen can improve spruce growth and stand resilience to drought. Thinning at higher intensities can increase conifer volume without reducing aspen volume at harvest, while light to moderate thinning is unlikely to result in increased harvest volume for either deciduous or conifer trees.
Article
Forestry
Deniz Guney, Fahrettin Atar, Ibrahim Turna, Alkan Gunlu
Summary: The study found that moderate precommercial thinning can promote the development of oriental beech stands, and different thinning intensities have significant effects on the growth characteristics of trees.
JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Marine Duperat, Barry Gardiner, Jean-Claude Ruel
Summary: The study demonstrates that selective thinning has a significant impact at the tree scale and an additional effect at the stand scale. The level of competition between trees can explain the wind load distribution within the stand.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Jiarong Liu, Jingyuan He, Lei Chai, Xun Zhong, Bo Jia, Xinjie Wang
Summary: A stand volume model was constructed using multiple linear regression model, random forest algorithm and generalized additive model to investigate the influences of various factors on stand volume. The results showed that stand structure variables, topography variables, diversity variables and cutting variables had significant impacts on stand volume, while climate variables had relatively smaller influence.
Article
Forestry
Michael A. Blazier, Thomas Hennessey, Laurence Schimleck, Scott Abbey, Ryan Holbrook, Joseph Dahlen
Summary: Changes in ownership and forest product use patterns have led to a trend of growing loblolly pine in shorter rotations in the southeastern United States. This study found that planting density significantly affects wood properties and different genotypes can also impact wood quality. Optimum planting density ranges were provided, and it was suggested that forest managers have flexibility in managing loblolly pine stand density without altering wood properties.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Forestry
C. Tattersall Smith, Christopher Preece, Inge Stupak, Russell D. Briggs, Bruna Barusco, Brian E. Roth, Ivan J. Fernandez
Summary: Global trends indicate increasing forest management intensity due to rising demand for forest products and decreasing forest area. However, a study in north-central Maine suggests that whole-tree harvesting for bio-economy feedstock production in spruce-fir forests is sustainable, with no significant negative impacts on tree and stand-level growth and nutrition observed. Further research is needed to confirm these findings over the entire rotation period.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
L. Madelene Elfstrom, Matthew D. Powers
Summary: Climate change predictions suggest that droughts will become more frequent and severe in Pseudotsuga menziesii forests of western North America. Thinning treatments can enhance drought resistance and resilience, but their effectiveness varies with thinning intensity and changes over time. Our study found that lower residual densities resulted in higher resistance and resilience during the first drought, but the effects diminished during the second drought. Spatial arrangement had minimal impact on drought response, while residual density had a significant effect on the tradeoff between periodic annual volume increment and drought resistance.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Cen Chen, Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Aaron Weiskittel
Summary: Simulated research shows that spruce budworm defoliation generally becomes widespread within 3 years of its initiation, in agreement with historical observations. Current-year defoliation has almost no correlation with defoliation more than a year ago, possibly due to the dispersal of spruce budworm sustaining defoliation across space and time.
ANNALS OF FOREST SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Vasilije Trifkovic, Andrej Boncina, Andrej Ficko
Summary: In this study, the influences of various stand, site, and climatic factors on tree recruitment in uneven-aged forests were explored. It was found that stand structure, including stand basal area and the proportion of tree species, was the most important factor affecting recruitment. Soil pH and rockiness were important for fir recruitment, while decadal precipitation and temperature played significant roles in beech and spruce recruitment. Furthermore, the optimal and critical ranges of these factors differed among the species.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Remote Sensing
Rajeev Bhattarai, Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Aaron Weiskittel
Summary: This study developed a method to produce large-scale spruce budworm (SBW) stand impact types and susceptibility maps using satellite remote sensing and site variables. Two machine-learning algorithms were used to map SBW host species, and the best model achieved a high overall accuracy. By combining host species data with age data, a susceptibility map based on stand impact types was produced.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Hanyue Chen, Quang V. Cao, Yihang Jiang, Jianguo Zhang, Xiongqing Zhang
Summary: The study developed a new approach that predicted the parameters of four survival quantile regression models based on a quantile associated with current stand density. The curves from these models were then used to project future stand density. The quantile regression approach outperformed the least squares method in three evaluation statistics, especially for longer projection lengths.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zafer Yucesan, Sena Karapinar
Summary: Growth and increment values were analyzed by comparing low and high precommercial thinning intensities. Results showed that heavily thinned sample plots had higher diameter and basal area increments, but lower height and volume increments. There were no significant differences in increment values between lightly and heavily thinned sample plots.
FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN
(2021)
Article
Remote Sensing
Rajeev Bhattarai, Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Aaron Weiskittel, Saeid Homayouni, Tawanda W. Gara, Ryan P. Hanavan
Summary: This study used multiple remote sensing data to model the leaf area index and basal area per ha of red spruce and balsam fir. The results showed that the Random Forest algorithm performed better in modeling. The red-edge spectral vegetation indices played a significant role in the estimation of both leaf area index and basal area per ha. These models are important for evaluating the dynamics of the eastern spruce budworm, as red spruce and balsam fir are its primary host species.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2022)