Effects of Stand Features and Soil Enzyme Activity on Spontaneous Pedunculate Oak Regeneration in Scots Pine Dominated Stands – Implication for Forest Management

Abstract

BackgroundA challenge in current forestry is adaptation of managed forests to climate change, which is likely to alter the main processes of forest dynamics, i.e. natural regeneration. Scots pine will probably lose some parts of its distribution area in Europe. However, two native oaks, pedunculate and sessile may maintain or expand the area of their occurrence in central Europe. The utilization of spontaneous (not initialized by foresters) oak regeneration in Scots pine stands for the creation of next generation stands is one of the adaptation methods to climate change. Many factors influencing pedunculate oak regeneration are well known, but there is a lack of knowledge on the relation between soil enzyme activity and the establishment and development of the species. The aim of the study was to identify the relationships among stand characteristics, herb species composition, soil enzyme activity and the establishment or recruitment of oak regeneration in Scots pine-dominated stands. ResultsThe one of the most influential factors shaping the oak seedling count was dehydrogenase activity in the humus horizon. We found that plots without litter and fern cover had higher seedling density. The raspberry ground cover and birch crown projection area had a positive influence on oak seedling number. The factor indicating good conditions for high density of oak saplings was phosphatase activity in the organic horizon. The same enzyme activity but in humus horizon described conditions in which more numerous recruits were observed.ConclusionsThe activity of soil enzymes can be treated as a predictor of site conditions but also as a predictor of the establishment and advancement of oak regeneration. The general density of spontaneous oak regeneration was not sufficient for the creation of new generation forest stands dominated by oak, but it is possible to use them as admixtures in new generation stands.

Modelling natural regeneration of Oak in Saxony, Germany: identifying factors influencing the occurrence and density of regeneration

“…Both, nitrogen content and pH value characterise soil quality. Similar results with regard to soil enzyme activity were reported by Dobrowolska et al (2021).…”

Conversion of low-value stands by corridor method in Left-Bank Forest-Steppe, Ukraine

“…Others meant a set of measures to transform even-aged single-layer stands into uneven-aged multilayer ones (Loewenstein 2005;Kerr et al 2010;Dupont-Leduc et al 2020;Schneider et al 2021). Still others identified the conversion as an improvement of the stand resilience by introducing other valuable species into the pure stand (Heinze et al 2000;Fonder 2007;Felton et al 2010Felton et al , 2016Dobrowolska et al 2021).…”