Seedling regeneration on decayed pine logs after the deforestation events caused by pine wilt disease

Y. Fukasawa

---

Coarse woody debris (CWD) forms an important habitat suitable for tree seedling establishment, and the CWD decay process influences tree seedling community. In Japan, a severe dieback of Pinus densiflora Sieb. & Zucc. caused by pine wilt disease (PWD) damaged huge areas of pine stands but creates huge mass of pine CWD. It is important to know the factors influencing seedling colonization on pine CWD and their variations among geographical gradient in Japan to expect forest regeneration in post-PWD stands. I conducted field surveys on the effects of latitude, climates, light condition, decay type of pine logs, and log diameter on tree seedling colonization at ten geographically distinct sites in Japan. In total, 59 tree taxa were recorded as seedlings on pine logs. Among them, 13 species were recorded from more than five sites as adult trees or seedlings and were used for the analyses. A generalized linear model showed that seedling colonization of Pinus densiflora was negatively associated with brown rot in sapwood, while that of Rhus trichocarpa was positively associated with brown rot in heartwood. Regeneration of Ilex macropoda had no relationships with wood decay type but negatively associated with latitude and MAT, while positively with log diameter. These results suggested that wood decay type is a strong determinant of seedling establishment for certain tree species, even at a wide geographical scale; however, the effect is tree species specific.

---

More ... | PDF

Growth and development of moringa (Moringa oleifera L.) stem cuttings as affected by diameter magnitude, growth media, and indole-3-butyric acid

Shamsuddeen Rufai, Mohamed M. Hanafi, Mohd Y. Rafii, Hasmah Mohidin, Syed Rastan Syed Omar

---

The acknowledged status of Moringa oleifera L. in sub-Saharan Africa, especially western Africa, has of recent accorded it the significance of being a good source of income to a large segment of many of its populace. Intensification of research into the realization of its full economic potential will be of utmost value to impoverished societies globally. One way to achieve this is the full exploration of all possible means that will facilitate its successful growth, propagation, and domestication. Even though it can be successfully raised through seeds, the high level outcrossing (64.3%) observed is a hindrance to realization of true to type trees. Vegetative propagation can be employed as an option to tackle the noted limitation, ease the cultivation process, and achieve the required realization of its economic potential. Our trial was carried out to study the influence of two growth media and three levels of indole 3-butyric acid (IBA) on root and shoot development in cuttings taken from a coppiced moringa tree existent in Universiti Putra Malaysia. Semi-hardwood cuttings of moringa, of between 20 and 30 mm diameter, cut into 25 cm length, were obtained, rinsed with a fungicide, then dipped, through their basal portion, inside varying levels (0, 1000, 2000, and 3000 ppm) of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) for between 7 and 10 seconds. The treated cuttings were then transplanted into a polyethylene bags (23 cm × 36 cm), containing two growth media - a munchong series soil (M) and a combination of a munchong series soil thoroughly mixed with biochar (MB) in a 3:1 ratio sequence. The trial was conducted inside a shade house where the humidity of the experimental area was manipulated through a regular daily manual hand sprinkling. Plant height, percentage of primary branch produced, leaf area, and dry matter (DM) were found to be significantly (P<0.05) influenced by variation in stem diameter magnitude, while the diameter of the primary branch and spad chlorophyll content were found to be non-significantly (P>0.05) influenced. The MB growth media was observed to significantly affect the plant height, percentage root number, and root length as compared to the M growth media. For a successful vegetative propagation and subsequent domestication, the MB growth media coupled with a higher stem diameter size are recommended.

---

More ... | PDF

Ecological pattern of lichen species abundance in mixed forests of Eastern Romania

Ioana Vicol

---

The importance of this study consists in the knowledge of the ecological attributes characteristic to mixed forestry habitats and how they affect the structure of the lichen species abundances. The field activities were performed within five forest habitat types from Moldavia Province, characterised mainly by oak mixed forests, riparian mixed forests and mixed beech forests. The habitat variables, tree variables and the lichen species abundances were analysed to get informations on the structural disimilarities, on the one hand, and relationships on the other hand. Within this study no significant disimilarities were found out from abundance lichen species point of view. The lichen species abundances are a result of interactions between components of their microhabitat and macrohabitat. The correlation analysis pointed out the preferences of lichen species to their host trees, especially Quercus and Fraxinus, altitude and tree level variables as are aspect and mosses coverage. The regression analysis has highlighted that the changes in lichen species abundances are caused by macrohabitat level predictors such as host trees represented by Fraxinus. This study demonstrates that, structure of lichen species is influenced by attributes of mixed forest habitats; therefore maintaining the diversity of tree species and ensuring the continuous occurrence of forestry land is necessary for lichen and their habitat conservation.

---

More ... | PDF

Response of the dominant rodent species to close-to-nature logging practices in a temperate mixed forest

Peter Lešo, Andrea Lešová, Rudolf Kropil, Peter Kaňuch

---

The paper aims to answer the question whether differences exist in microhabitat preferences of the yellow-necked mouse and the bank vole between the natural forest and close-to-nature managed forest in the phase of stand regeneration. The two species were live-trapped during two periods in 2006 and 2007 on a square trapping grid established in a managed forest and a natural one. Ten microhabitat variables of each trapping point were measured to analyse their influence on the spatial distribution of the two species. At trapping points, the number of capture records for each species as a dependent variable was modelled using Generalised Linear Models. The herbal cover and a distance to the nearest woody debris were the most important measured microhabitat variables which affect the spatial distribution of both species. In the natural forest, the number of captures in both species increased significantly (p < 0.05) with a decreasing number of trees, increasing undergrowth coverage and decreasing distance to the nearest woody debris. In the managed forest, an increasing distance to the nearest tree and increasing herbal cover had a negative effect on the yellow-necked mouse occurrence (p < 0.001), while in contrast, the increase in values of the same variables increased frequency of occurrence of the bank vole (p < 0.001). Moreover, the bank vole was more frequent in the presence of woody debris (p < 0.002). The study demonstrated clearly that these species modify their spatial activity depending on the management of the woodland.

---

More ... | PDF

Using classification trees to predict forest structure types from LiDAR data

Chiara Torresan, Piermaria Corona, Gianfranco Scrinzi, Joan Valls Marsal

---

This study assesses whether metrics extracted from airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) raw point cloud can be exploited to predict different forest structure types by means of classification trees. Preliminarily, a bivariate analysis by means of Pearson statistical test was developed to find associations between LiDAR metrics and the proportion of basal area into three stem diameter classes (understory, mid-story, and over-story trees) of 243 random distributed plots surveyed from 2007 to 2012 in Trento Province (Northern Italy). An unsupervised clustering approach was adopted to determine forest structural patterns on the basis of basal area proportion in the three stem diameter classes, using a k-means procedure combined with a previous hierarchical classification algorithm. A comparison among the identified clusters centroids was performed by the Kruskall-Wallis test. A classification tree model to predict forest structural patterns originating from the cluster analysis was developed and validated. Between 18 potential LiDAR metrics, 11 were significantly correlated with the proportion of basal area of understory, mid-story, and overstory trees. The results coming from the agglomerative hierarchical clustering allowed identification of 5 clusters of forest structure: pole-stage (70% of the considered cases), young (15%), adult (24.3%), mature (24.3%), and old forests (30%). Five LiDAR metrics were selected by the classification tree to predict the forest structural types: standard deviation and mode of canopy heights, height at which 95% and 99% of canopy heights fall below, difference between height at which 90% and 10% of canopy heights fall below. The validation tree model process showed a misclassification error of 45.9% and a level of user’s accuracy ranging between 100% and 33.3% in the validation data set. The highest level of user’s accuracy was reached in the classification of pole-stage forests (100%), in which more than 82% of basal area is due to the understory-trees, follow by the classification of old forests types (63.5% of basal area due to the overstory-trees) achieved 76.5% of user’s accuracy. The model has provided moderately satisfactory results in term of classification performance: substantial room for improvement might be established by multi- or hyperspectral imaging that allow detailed characterization of the spectral behaviour of the forest structure types.

---

More ... | PDF

Tourists’ perception of deadwood in mountain forests

Fabio Pastorella, Admir Avdagić, Azra Čabaravdić, Amiina Mraković, Merisa Osmanović, Alessandro Paletto

---

In the traditional forest management the non-living woody biomass in forests was perceived negatively. Generally, deadwood was removed during the silvicultural treatments to protect forests against fire, pests and insects attacks. In the last decades, the perception of forest managers regarding forest deadwood is changing. However, people’s opinions about the presence of deadwood in the forests have been few investigated. In view of this gap, the aim of the paper is to understand the tourists’ perception and opinions towards the deadwood in mountain forests. The survey was carried out in two study areas: the first one in Italy and the second one in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A structured questionnaire was administered to a random sample of visitors (n=156 in Italy; n=115 in Bosnia-Herzegovina). The tourists’ preferences were evaluated through a set of images characterized by a different amount of standing dead trees and lying deadwood. The collected data were statistically analyzed to highlight the preferred type of forests related to different forms of management of deadwood (unmanaged forests, close-to-nature forests, extensive managed forests and intensive managed forests). The results show that both components of deadwood are not perceived negatively by tourists. More than 60% of respondents prefer unmanaged forests and close-to-nature managed forests, 40% of respondents prefer intensive managed forests in which deadwood is removed during the silvicultural treatments.

---

More ... | PDF