Southern Research Station

Title: Response of Planted Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus L.) to Mechanical Release, Competition, and Drought in the Southern Appalachians

Author: Clinton, Barton D.; Elliott, Katherine J.; Swank, Wayne T.

Date: 1997

Source: South. J. Appl. For. 21(1):19-23.

Description: Conversion of low-quality, natural mixed pine hardwood ecosystems, containing a mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia L.) dominated understory, to more productive eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.)/mixed-hardwood systems is a common prescription on relatively xeric southern Appalachian forest sites. We examined the effects of mechanical release, interspecific competition, and annual precipitation on growth of planted white pine in four 14-yr-old stands in the southern Appalachians. Two stands were mechanically released at age 6. No significant differences in biomass, basal area, or diameter were,found between treatments for all species combined. Radial increment was significantly less during a drought year for both treatments. Height increment was less sensitive to severe moisture limitation than radial increment. Height and radial increment were compared to distance-dependent and distance-independent measures of competition for the nonreleased stands. Indices based on height and heightldistance explained the greatest amount of variation in both radial and height increment. The influence ofpost-release severe drought may have delayed or diminished the response to release. The competitive influence of understory dominant mountain laurel at stand age 14 appears to be slight compared to the influence of other competing hardwood vegetation.

Keywords: 

View and Print this Publication (162 KB)

Pristine Version:  An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here:

View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (903 KB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Clinton, Barton D.; Elliott, Katherine J.; Swank, Wayne T.  1997.  Response of Planted Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus L.) to Mechanical Release, Competition, and Drought in the Southern Appalachians.   South. J. Appl. For. 21(1):19-23.