Tree growth and competition in a post‐logging Quercus mongolica forest on Mt. Sobaek, South Korea

Abstract

Secondary woodlands in South Korea cover most mountains from low to middle elevations. While general patterns of forest succession are well understood, little is known about mechanisms of stand recovery after disturbance. We examined the spatio-temporal variations in establishment, growth, size inequality, and mode of competition among trees in a 50-year-old post-logging Quercus mongolica-dominated stand. We further compared the growth and stem allometry of single trees, presumably of seed origin, with multi-stemmed trees resprouting from stumps. Q. mongolica formed the upper canopy 16-22 m tall, 88.3% of total stand basal area, and 36.2% of total stem density, with most trees established during the first post-logging decade (51.2% were resprouts). During the first three decades, the Q. mongolica recruits grew exponentially, and disproportionately more in diameter than few older reserved trees left after the last cutting. This substantially decreased size inequality. The reverse trend was observed from 1994 to 2004: larger trees grow more, indicating an increasing asymmetry of competition for light. Neighborhood analysis revealed that when target trees had more or larger neighbors, their exponential phase of growth was reduced and maximum size was decreased. After the 50 years of stand development, more than 70% of Q. mongolica showed growth decline as a result of competitive stress, and mortality was about 30%, concentrated in smaller size classes. Compared to single stems, resprouts within clones do not seem to compete less asymmetric as might be expected based on studies of clonal herbaceous plants and physiological integration within genets. As Q. mongolica was also negatively affected by competition from woody species currently prevailing in the lower tree stratum (Tilia amurensis, Acer mono, Fraxinus rhynchophylla, Acer pseudosieboldianum), we predict the stand will become increasingly dominated by these more shade-tolerant trees.

Altitudinal changes in the growth and allometry of Rumex alpinus

“…The size-growth relationship therefore provides evidence for the pattern of growth partitioning and competition intensity within a stand (Hara 1988;Doležal et al 2009). In the highest altitude stand composed of highly branched clones, the RGR was similar for larger and smaller fragments (the slope of 1.01 in Eq.…”

“…To quantify size-and age-dependent growth variations, we used the size-growth analysis (Hara 1988;Doležal et al 2009) that enables delineation between linear, size-proportional and nonlinear, and size-disproportional increase in growth rate and to infer an alternative mode of plant interference (symmetric vs. asymmetric competition, Hara 1988;Suzuki and Hutchings 1997). To quantify size-and age-dependent growth variations, we used the size-growth analysis described by Hara (1988) and Doležal et al (2004).…”

Patterns of seed bank and size asymmetry of plant growth across varying sites in the invasive Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae)

“…Nonetheless, the study did not explicitly take into account the effects of stand density, plant size and proximity of neighbours on the degree of asymmetry reported in this article. Such measures of local interference (see Thomas and Weiner 1989;Dolezal et al 2009) on individual plant performance are crucial to fully elucidate the mode of growth and nature of intra-and inter-specific competition in a given stand, and will be the focus of another study.…”

“…The expectation was that, as in most plant species, asymmetry of growth would be manifested, but we seek to explore the consistency of the trend across invasion phases (established and recolonization stages) and in various land-use types. For infestations in a forest ecosystem, where light is often limiting, we hypothesized that large plants should consistently perform better than the smaller ones relative to what would be expected based solely on differences in size (thus accentuating asymmetric growth and intra-specific competition); such a trend may not necessarily be observable in a more open, agricultural landscape, where resource pre-emption, if any, would be more for below-ground resources (water and nutrients) that are difficult to monopolize and hence, growth will be more symmetric (Schwinning and Weiner 1998;Weiner and Damgaard 2006;Dolezal et al 2009). We also hypothesized that short-term variability in size asymmetry will be increased by factors that increase productivity (e.g.…”

“…Information contained in a set of size measurements (height, diameter, and volume/ biomass) for a population of plants can be used to make inferences about past or present competitive environments within that population (Thomas and Weiner 1989;Weiner 1990;Vega and Sadras 2003;Dolezal et al 2009;Metsaranta and Lieffers 2010;Pretzsch and Dieler 2011;Méndez-Alonzo et al 2012). While there is a prevalence of such studies across many plant life forms and ecological groups, including forest and commercially utilized species, equivalent study on invasive plants as a group is scant (but see Arenas et al 2002).…”