natural regeneration in norway spruce and red pine plantations in dufferin county ontario - a case study
abstract
norway spruce has been demonstrated to be a highly productive species in
eastern temperate regions of canada and is commonly utilized for the afforestation of
poor soils. however, literature on the understory regeneration and management of
mature norway spruce plantations in canada is lacking. characteristics of natural
regeneration were compared under two neighbouring norway spruce and red pine
plantations in southern ontario. regeneration counted at plots found large quantities of
norway spruce regeneration which was the dominant species of regeneration at both
norway spruce stands and neighbouring red pine stands. most of this regeneration was
also comprised of saplings greater than 1.3 meters in height. all stands had natural
regeneration from outside stands, however regeneration at red pine stands was more
diversified, especially in smaller height categories. average diameters of different
species were more normally dispersed than height, and somewhat related to the
understory light intensity. measurements of light intensity using a spherical
densiometer were found to be consistently lower for both stands, and likely related to
the abundance of tall regeneration instead of the overstory density. one-way analysis of
variance (anova) found no significant differences for all parameters between stand
types (red pine and norway spruce), although this was potentially in part due to small
sample sizes (n= 8 for most measures). these findings suggest some potential of
norway spruce as an invasive species, however further study is required to make this
claim. a review of the european literature on the topics of norway spruce regeneration
and norway spruce stand conversion suggests norway spruce exhibits intermediate
levels of shade tolerance regenerating best in large gaps and is capable of being
outcompeted by shade-tolerant species at low-light environments. practitioners
managing similar stands should target small canopy gaps and should anticipate the
potential of the species to regenerate very intensively in large gaps compared to native
spruce species.
collections
- undergraduate theses [325]