Regeneration process from seed crop to saplings – a case study in uneven-aged Norway spruce-dominated stands in southern Finland

• Main Author: Saksa, Timo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Finnish Society of Forest Science 2004-01-01
• Series: Silva Fennica
• Online Access: https://www.silvafennica.fi/article/405

The dynamics of spruce regeneration, from seed crop to saplings, was studied based on five permanent plots in uneven-aged, spruce-dominated, boreal forest stands, cut with single-tree selection in the beginning of the 1990âs. The annual fluctuation of the spruce seed crop was very similar in uneven-aged and even-aged stands. The correlation between seed crop and number of germinants was significant; but stem number, basal area or volume of the stand did not influence on seedling emergence. The effects of good seed crops were seen as peaks or an increase in the number of germinants and smallest seedlings. The mean number of âstabilisedâ spruce seedlings (height 11 cm to 130 cm) varied from 6000 ha to over 25 000 spruce seedlings ha from one monitoring plot to another. On a monitoring plot the number of âstabilisedâ spruce seedlings was stable over time. Neither stand basal area nor stand volume influenced the number of âstabilisedâ spruce seedlings, but the height of these seedlings was higher on subplots with lower stand volume and smaller basal area. In this study the monitoring period, 5â10 years, was too short to obtain reliable figures for ingrowth, i.e. the transition of seedlings to the sapling stage (h > 130 cm). The adjusted mean ingrowth was 26 stems ha year.â1â1â1â1