Thinning increases drought tolerance of European beech: a case study on two forested slopes on opposite sides of a valley

Diaconu, Daniela; Kahle, Hans‐Peter; Spiecker, Heinrich

doi:10.1007/s10342-017-1033-8

Cited by 37 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This effect has been extensively documented [32] as thinning operations are widely performed in forests [31,63,64]. The same mechanism that improves growth under biomass reduction treatments—i.e., reduced competition for light—also reduces competition for water under drought conditions [65,66]. Thus, given the increased likelihood of droughts under global warming [38], this practice may have to be implemented in areas that until now have not experienced water scarcity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest resilience under global environmental change: Do we have the information we need? A systematic review

et al. 2019

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The capacity of forests to recover after disturbance, i.e., their resilience, determines their ability to persist and function over time. Many variables, natural and managerial, affect forest resilience. Thus, understanding their effects is critical for the development of sound forest conservation and management strategies, especially in the context of ongoing global environmental changes. We conducted a representative review, meta-analysis, of the forest literature in this topic (search terms “forest AND resilience”). We aimed to identify natural conditions that promote or jeopardize resilience, assess the efficacy of post-disturbance management practices on forest recovery, and evaluate forest resilience under current environmental changes.We surveyed more than 2,500 articles and selected the 156 studies (724 observations) that compared and quantified forest recovery after disturbance under different contexts. Context of recovery included: resource gradients (moisture and fertility), post-disturbance biomass reduction treatments, species richness gradients, incidence of a second disturbance, and disturbance severity. Metrics of recovery varied from individual tree growth and reproduction, to population abundance, to species richness and cover. Analyses show management practices only favored recovery through increased reproduction (seed production) and abundance of recruitment stages. Higher moisture conditions favored recovery, particularly in dry temperate regions; and in boreal forests, this positive effect increased with regional humidity. Biomass reduction treatments were only effective in increasing resilience after a drought. Early recruiting plant stages benefited from increased severity, while disturbance severity was associated with lower recovery of remaining adult trees. This quantitative review provides insight into the natural conditions and management practices under which forest resilience is enhanced and highlights conditions that could jeopardize future resilience. We also identified important knowledge gaps, such as the role of diversity in determining forest resilience and the lack of data in many regions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest resilience under global environmental change: Do we have the information we need? A systematic review

et al. 2019

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“…In the following, the TRs and LYs are numbered as TR1B to TR3B and LY1B to LY4B with increasing soil depth (Table 2). ("B" indicates the sprinkling plot and allows for the distinction from another dataset not used Diaconu et al (2017). All other information is based on our own data.…”

Section: Experimental Setup and Lab Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface flow and phosphorus dynamics in beech forest hillslopes during sprinkling experiments: how fast is phosphorus replenished?

et al. 2021

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Abstract. The phosphorus (P) concentration of soil solution is of key importance for plant nutrition. During large rainfall events, the P concentration is altered by lateral and vertical subsurface storm flow (SSF) that facilitates P mobilization, redistribution within the soil profile and potential P export from the ecosystem. These processes are not well studied under field conditions. Important factors of the replenishment of P concentrations in soil solutions are the rate of P replenishment (by biotic and abiotic processes) and the P buffering capacity of soils. Lab experiments have shown that replenishment times can vary between minutes and months. The question remains of how P concentrations in lateral and vertical SSF vary under natural field conditions. We present results of large-scale sprinkling experiments simulating 150 mm throughfall at 200 m2 plots on hillslopes at three beech forests in Germany. We aimed at quantifying lateral and vertical SSF and associated P concentrations on the forest floor, in the mineral soil and in the saprolite during sprinkling experiments in spring and summer. The sites differed mainly in terms of soil depth, skeleton content and soil P stock (between 189 and 624 g/m2 in the top 1 m soil depth). Vertical SSF in the mineral soil and in the saprolite was at least 2 orders of magnitude larger than lateral SSF at the same depth. Vertical and lateral SSF consisted mainly of pre-event water that was replaced by sprinkling water. Higher P concentrations in SSF in the first 1 to 2 h after the onset of SSF indicated nutrient flushing, but P concentrations in the mineral soil and saprolite were nearly constant thereafter for most of the experiment despite a strong increase in SSF. This suggests that P in the soil solution at all three sites was replenished fast by mineral or organic sources. If chemostatic transport conditions would dominate in SSF, annual P losses at the lateral and vertical boundary of a forest plot could be approximated by knowing the average P concentration and the water fluxes in forest soils. A rough estimation of the annual P loss based on this simplified assumption for one of our sites with longer SSF data resulted in an annual P loss of 3.16 mg/m2/a. This P loss is similar to estimates from a previous study at the same site using bi-weekly groundwater samples. Our approximated annual P loss in SSF was in a similar order of magnitude as P input by dry and wet deposition and by mineral weathering. Despite the fact that P losses from the ecosystem seem to be small, the translocation of P from the forest floor to the mineral soil might be of high relevance at sites with low P stocks where the forest floor is the dominant source for the P nutrition of trees.

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“…Forest management may influence the growth trends of forests because gaps in the beech canopy affect the growth and transpiration rates of neighboring trees [19]. Another working group assessed a beech forest in southwestern Germany and found that co-dominant and dominant trees had lower growth recovery and lower growth resilience after drought than did the predominant trees [20]. They hypothesized that under a warmer climate, thinning might reduce the effects of drought by allocating more growing space to individual trees; in this way, the resilience and stability of beech can be increased at both the tree and the stand levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought Primarily Reduces Canopy Transpiration of Exposed Beech Trees and Decreases the Share of Water Uptake from Deeper Soil Layers

Lüttschwager

Jochheim

2020

Forests

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Research Highlights: During drought, reduced soil water availability and increased vapor pressure deficit diminished transpiration in a mature beech stand (Fagus sylvatica L.). Dominant trees were more affected than suppressed trees. The share of soil water uptake from deeper layers decreased. The ability of individual trees in the forest stand to save water during drought was apparently dependent on their social status. This would be relevant for forest management. Objectives: We investigated which basal area classes of trees contribute more or less to total transpiration under wet and dry conditions, and from which soil layers they took up water. We hypothesized that dominant trees have a better adaptability to drought and diminish transpiration more than suppressed trees. Methods: The water budget of the forest stand was continuously monitored throughout the entire observation period. Xylem sap flux measurements using thermal dissipation probes were performed during the vegetation period at different depths in the trunks of ten representative trees. A radial distribution model of the sap flow density pattern was used to compute whole-tree and stand transpiration. Water budget was simulated using a physiology-based model. Results: During drought, the fraction of suppressed trees to whole-canopy transpiration of the forest stand increased and the share of soil water uptake from deeper layers decreased. Conclusions: The behavior of dominant trees under drought conditions could be interpreted as a water-conserving strategy. Thinning by removing suppressed trees should be employed to stabilize forests.

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Thinning increases drought tolerance of European beech: a case study on two forested slopes on opposite sides of a valley

Cited by 37 publications

References 36 publications

Forest resilience under global environmental change: Do we have the information we need? A systematic review

Forest resilience under global environmental change: Do we have the information we need? A systematic review

Subsurface flow and phosphorus dynamics in beech forest hillslopes during sprinkling experiments: how fast is phosphorus replenished?

Drought Primarily Reduces Canopy Transpiration of Exposed Beech Trees and Decreases the Share of Water Uptake from Deeper Soil Layers

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