Early silviculture of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) plantations, between economics and stability: a case-study

Ano: 2011 | Volume: 2 | Número: 2

Autores: Pătrăucean, A., Nicolescu, V.N

Palavras-chave: Norway spruce, silviculture, ecology, economy, Romania

Resumo Inglês:

The Norway spruce stands of Europe have been exposed to the undesired effects of snow and wind since a long time ago. Under such circumstances their resistance to the two factors has become a major preoccupation to foresters everywhere in Europe, two main solutions (i) wide spacing and (ii) high intensity silvicultural interventions - especially cleaning-respacing - performed soon after the first canopy closure being envisaged. Taking into account these solutions as well as the high initial stocking of pure Norway spruce plantations in Romania (usually 5,000 plants per ha), the paper outlines the major outputs of a research project started back in 2004 and dealing with the effects of various intensity cleaning-respacing interventions on the stability of young cultures as follows: the best results in terms of increment of mean dbh were achieved in the plot with the lowest initial stand density; there is a significant positive correlation between the initial dbh and dbh increment; a significant positive correlation was also found between the dbh and mean crown diameter; the mean height increment was much less influenced by stand density than the mean dbh increment; the early started and high intensity cleaning-respacing had a positive effect on Norway spruce stand stability, the present level of slenderness index reflecting its high or medium resistance to possible snow damages.