Quantifying effects on tree growth rates of symmetric and asymmetric inter-tree competition in even-aged, monoculture Eucalyptus pilularis forests

P. W. West

doi:10.1007/s00468-022-02341-w

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Quantifying effects on tree growth rates of symmetric and asymmetric inter-tree competition in even-aged, monoculture Eucalyptus pilularis forests

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Quantifying effects on tree growth rates of symmetric and asymmetric inter-tree competition in even-aged, monoculture Eucalyptus pilularis forests

P. W. West

Trees (Berlin, West), pp.1-16

01/09/2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02341-w

Appears in Recent Faculty of Science and Engineering Publications

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Abstract

Forestry

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Science & Technology

Competition

Symmetric

Asymmetric

Basal area growth

Size distribution

In even-aged, monoculture forests, individual tree growth rates are much affected by the amount of the resources required for growth (particularly light, water and nutrients) that are available to them from the site on which they are growing. In turn, those amounts are much affected by competition for them between neighbouring trees. Competition may be ‘symmetric’, when tree growth rates are directly proportional to tree sizes, or ‘asymmetric’ when growth rates vary disproportionately with tree sizes. Using a large data set from blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis Smith) forests of sub-tropical eastern Australia, methods were devised to quantify the effects of symmetric and asymmetric competition; they were determined as the change each causes in individual tree growth rates over growth periods of a few years. It was found that symmetric competition was by far the principal determinant of tree growth rates. Asymmetric competition had much lesser effects, but was sufficient to alter substantially the development with age of the frequency distribution of tree sizes. It is concluded that the size of a tree at any time is the principal determinant of both its metabolic capabilities for growth and its competitive status and, hence, its growth rate.

Details

Title: Quantifying effects on tree growth rates of symmetric and asymmetric inter-tree competition in even-aged, monoculture Eucalyptus pilularis forests
Creators: P. W. West - Southern Cross University, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Publication Details: Trees (Berlin, West), pp.1-16
Publisher: Springer Nature
Number of pages: 16
Identifiers: 991013059413802368
Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Quantifying effects on tree growth rates of symmetric and asymmetric inter-tree competition in even-aged, monoculture Eucalyptus pilularis forests

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