Bark structure and mode of canopy regeneration in trees of Melia azedarach L.

Summary The bark texture of Melia azedarach L. changes from smooth to furrowed as trees age. In trees that were cut down, those with smooth bark sprouted below the cut from suppressed buds; trees with thick, furrowed bark sprouted at the edge of the cut surface from adventitious buds. The trees that had thin, furrowed bark sprouted mainly at the edge of the cut from adventitious buds, but sometimes also from suppressed buds in cracks. The relationship between sprouting pattern and tree architecture are discussed.     

Plant responses and herbivory following simulated browsing and stem cutting of Combretum apiculatum

Abstract. Time and mode of herbivory on savanna trees and their subsequent responses are dependent on, among other things, earlier herbivory and fire. We used clipping (simulated browsing) and stem cutting (simulated heavy browsing and to some extent simulated fire) to evaluate such interactions. Study organisms were a deciduous, broad‐leaved tree species, Combretum apiculatum (Combretaceae), browsing large herbivores and leaf‐eating insects. The treatments were done in the late dry season before bud break. Late in the following wet season, we recorded plant responses to treatment and browsing. The treated trees, especially the cut ones, responded by producing larger and fewer annual shoots. Compared to control trees, there was a slight increase in shoot biomass of clipped trees and a strong reduction of cut ones. Leaf area increased in clipped trees, but decreased in cut ones. A marked increase in the number of browsed trees was recorded amongst treated trees. Number of bites, consumption and utilization also increased with severity of treatment. In contrast, insect herbivory was reduced on both clipped and cut trees. The observed patterns are discussed in relation to current ideas on plant ‐ herbivore interactions.     

Influence of host tree condition on the performance of Tetropium fuscum (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Tetropium fuscum (F.) attacks weakened Norway spruce, Picea abies (L.) Karst., in its native Europe and may colonize healthy spruce in Nova Scotia, Canada. We used manipulative field experiments to evaluate: 1) the development of T. fuscum on apparently healthy red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) in Nova Scotia; 2) the influence of red spruce physiological condition (healthy, girdled or cut) on T. fuscum performance; and 3) the impact of natural enemies and competitors on T. fuscum performance when developing on trees of varying condition. Tetropium fuscum successfully developed on healthy red spruce. Survival was higher on healthy than on girdled or cut trees when larvae were exposed to natural enemies and competitors. The benefits of reduced competition and parasitism on healthy trees appeared to compensate for any reductions in nutritional quality, increase in host resistance, or both. In contrast, when T. fuscum were protected from natural enemies, apparent survival was highest on girdled trees. Tetropium fuscum development took longer on healthy than on cut or girdled trees, and emerged adults were largest on healthy trees. The disparities in adult sizes among the three treatments may mean that healthy trees are more nutritious. Alternatively, the differences may indicate that a greater amount of time was spent feeding in healthy than in girdled or cut trees. Tree condition appears to have a direct impact on the success of T. fuscum, influencing survival, development time, and adult size, and may mediate the impact of natural enemies and competitors, further affecting T. fuscum performance.     

Cutting of lichen trees: a survival strategy used before the 20th century in northern Sweden

Sami reindeer herders in northern Fennoscandia have historically cut trees with high quantities of arboreal lichens to feed their animals during harsh winters. In this study we analysed temporal and spatial patterns of lichen-tree cuttings of Scots pine in a remote forest landscape in northern Sweden. We wanted to test the hypothesis that repeated cutting of such trees may have had long-lasting effects on the forest ecosystem that are still discernable today. Our analyses included an inventory of remaining lichen-tree stumps, and a field survey of forest variables to relate structural variation within the forest to these cuttings. We used dendrochronological methods to date stumps and reconstruct forest structure. Our results show that more than 7,000 trees were cut for this purpose over a period of almost 300 years within an area covering 6 km². Lichen-tree cutting was most intense during the late 18th century when ca. 600–1,000 trees were cut during each decade. We did not detect any significant relationship between past lichen-tree cutting and present small-scale forest heterogeneity, and suggest that this might be due to the small size of the cut trees and the long time elapsed since most of the cuttings. We conclude that vestiges such as stumps from lichen-tree cutting are highly valuable for our understanding of past land use. Furthermore, since they are located in an unlogged and very old forest, this highlights the need to acknowledge the interconnectedness between ecological and cultural values of such forests and the need to identify and protect them.     

Trunk cutting initiates bottom-up cascades in a tri-trophic system: sprouting increases biodiversity of herbivorous and predaceous arthropods on willows

We examined the effects of trunk cutting on the regrowth responses of two dominant willow species, Salix eriocarpa and S. gilgiana , and the subsequent effects on the community structure (abundance and species richness) of herbivorous and predaceous arthropods. We studied ten randomly selected pairs of cut and uncut (control) trees of each willow species. Field observations showed that when the trunks were cut, shoots sprouted from the base and developed rapidly. These shoots continued to grow until July, producing lateral shoots and leaves, whereas current-year shoots on uncut trees essentially stopped growing by April. In July, the upper leaves of cut trees were less tough and had a greater water and nitrogen content than leaves of uncut trees. Leaf consumption and abundance and species richness of both herbivorous and predaceous arthropods were significantly greater on cut trees than on uncut trees in both willow species. Overall, trunk cutting resulted in at least a two-fold increase in both relative abundance and species richness within the arthropod community on the willow species. We concluded that the severe physical damage caused by trunk cutting greatly increased the biodiversity of herbivorous and predaceous arthropods through bottom-up cascading effects.     

Can we effectively stop the expansion of trees on wetlands? Results of a birch removal experiment

The main aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of removing invasive downy birch in non-forest peatland applying a single cut. We tested whether the removal of birch was positively related to the height of cutting, season of the year and age of the trees. Our study showed that birch trees cut at the higher tested height exhibited a lower survival rate than those cut below or just above the ground level. Furthermore, the winter cut produced more non-sprouting stumps than those recorded after the cut performed in autumn. In our opinion, winter cutting at breast height is the best management strategy for downy birch control. However, we suppose that the effective elimination of birch by applying a single cut is not possible, and the treatment should be repeated in subsequent years or boosted by additional treatments.     

The flow of water into fruit trees. II. Water intake through a cut limb

Water was supplied to trees directly through cut limbs in order to bypass the relatively high root resistances to water flow. Addition of the reducing agents 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate, sodium iso-ascorbate or ascorbic acid singly or in combination significantly increased the time for which water could be supplied through a cut limb before xylem blockage reduced water inflow. Supply of water to apple trees through a cut limb increased fruit size compared with non-irrigated control trees. Application of water by this method also allowed detection of the presence of vascular blockages in trees affected by a root weevil (Leptopius squalidus).     

Food selection by beavers

Summary Multidimensional contingency tables provide a powerful new statistical tool for analyzing interactions among several variables in an ecological study. This technique is applied to a study of selectivity in tree-cutting by two colonies of beavers in central Massachusetts.At the Blue Heron Cove colony, selection depends jointly on genus and diamter. Beavers cut birch of all diameters available but avoid large diameter maples, pines, and oaks. These beavers are choosy generalists: they show clear preferences in cutting various genera of trees for food yet they cut substantial numbers of trees of non-preferred genera. At the Tamplin Road Pond colony, discrete sites of concentrated cutting activity differ in genera and diameters of trees selected. Trees of all diameters are cut at one site close to water, small diameter trees are selected at two other sites farther from water. Ironwood is preferred at one site but selected against at two other sites. This difference between sites in generic selectivity has two plausible explanations: (1) tree species differ in nutritional and other chemical value between sites, (2) beavers sample trees of the various species present at some sites in order to assess the value of such sites as foraging areas.     

Using max cut to enhance rooted trees consistency

Supertree methods are used to construct a large tree over a large set of taxa from a set of small trees over overlapping subsets of the complete taxa set. Since accurate reconstruction methods are currently limited to a maximum of a few dozen taxa, the use of a supertree method in order to construct the tree of life is inevitable. Supertree methods are broadly divided according to the input trees: When the input trees are unrooted, the basic reconstruction unit is a quartet tree. In this case, the basic decision problem of whether there exists a tree that agrees with all quartets is NP-complete. On the other hand, when the input trees are rooted, the basic reconstruction unit is a rooted triplet and the above decision problem has a polynomial time algorithm. However, when there is no tree which agrees with all triplets, it would be desirable to find the tree that agrees with the maximum number of triplets. However, this optimization problem was shown to be NP-hard. Current heuristic approaches perform min cut on a graph representing the triplets inconsistency and return a tree that is guaranteed to satisfy some required properties. In this work, we present a different heuristic approach that guarantees the properties provided by the current methods and give experimental evidence that it significantly outperforms currently used methods. This method is based on a divide and conquer approach, where the min cut in the divide step is replaced by a max cut in a variant of the same graph. The latter is achieved by a lightweight semidefinite programming-like heuristic that leads to very fast running times     

Early response of Abies balsamea seedlings to artificially created openings

Abstract. Small-scale canopy openings are being increasingly recognized for their importance in boreal forest stand development. Yet more work is necessary to understand their effects on seedling growth. This study investigated the effect of different degrees of canopy opening (all trees cut, conifers cut, conifers girdled and control quadrats) in different stand types on Abies balsamea seedling recruitment, growth and architecture. The lack of a treatment effect on seedling establishment suggests that gaps primarily affect advance regeneration. In the first year after treatment the seedlings in the cut blocks (both conifer cut and all trees cut) responded with an increase in height growth. Changes in the leader to lateral branch ratio were also significant. Continued architectural change in terms of number of branches produced did not occur until after two years had passed. Although not significantly different from the control, increases can be observed in all measurements for the girdled treatment. It is therefore concluded that the growth response of advance regeneration is more important following canopy opening than new seedling recruitment and that seedling performance is greatest where degree of opening is greatest.     

Tree species richness complementarity, disturbance and fragmentation in a Mexican tropical montane cloud forest

Tropical montane cloud forest exhibits great heterogeneity in speciescomposition and structure over short geographic distances. In central Veracruz,Mexico, the conservation priority of seven cloud forest fragments was assessedby considering differences in woody plant species richness and complementarityof species among sites, forest structure, tree mortality, and timber andfirewood extraction as indicators of anthropogenic disturbance. Densities oftrees 5 cm dbh (360–1700 trees/ha) weredifferent among the sites, but basal area (35.3–89.3m²/ha) did not differ among fragments. The number of dead trees rangedfrom 10–30 to 170–200 trees/ha. The fragments'species composition was different but complementary. The Morisita–Hornindex indicated low similarity between fragments. A non-parametric estimator ofspecies richness indicated that more sampling effort would be necessary tocomplete the inventory (15 additional trees and two understory shrub species).Unfortunately, most of the fragments are threatened with deforestation. The numberof cut trees was similar among sites (0–15 cut trees/0.1 ha).Sites with immediate need for conservation were close to settlements, with highnumbers of cut trees and no legal protection. The selected sites represent thevariety of situations that exist in the region. Given the high complementarityobserved between fragments, a regional conservation approach will be required topreserve the last repositories of part of the tremendous biodiversity of theonce continuous forest in this region.     

Reproductive strategy of the sugi bark borer,Semanotus japonicus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) on Japanese cedar,Cryptomeria japonica

The inner bark of Japanese cedar,Cryptomeria japonica D. Don., is the main food of the sugi bark borer,Semanotus japonicus Lacordaire, but may also be involved in resistance to attack by the borer. I used newly hatched larvae to inoculate cedar logs that had been cut 2-weeks to 12-months earlier, and undamaged living cedar trees. On living trees, all larvae were killed by resin flow from the traumatic resin canals between the outer- and inner bark or between the inner bark and cambium. In logs that were cut more than 4 months prior to inoculation, larvae were unable to complete development. In logs cut 2 weeks prior to inoculation, almost all larvae were able to reach the adult stage but they were smaller in size than adults from living trees damaged by this borer. These results suggest that poor nutrient conditions in the inner bark of logs affected development and survival of the borer. Because of its nutritional advantage, living cedars provide a better environment for the sugi bark borer. However, all larvae are killed by resin flow, suggesting that this insect is “in between” being primary and secondary with respect to living trees, or a “weak” primary insect. The sugi bark borer seems to develop early in the season so that early instar larvae encounter reduced amounts of resin flow and so that late-instar larvae feed mostly in summer when nutrient levels in the inner bark are at their highest.     

Tree killing by Ips typographus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) at stand edges with and without colonized felled spruce trees

Abstract 1 To maintain biodiversity in managed spruce forests in Sweden more wind‐felled trees must be retained. However, there is concern among forest owners that this may result in higher tree mortality caused by the spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus (L.) (Col. Scolytidae). 2 To simulate wind‐felled trees, living spruce trees were cut at spruce stand edges bordering fresh clear‐cuttings. Treatments comprised edges with zero, one or five cut trees colonized by I. typographus. Edges with naturally wind‐felled trees colonized by I. typographus were also included in the analyses. 3 During the two following summers, the number of trees killed by I. typographus did not differ between edges with and without felled trees, or between edges with one or five felled trees. 4 Within edges with felled trees, there were more killed trees close to the felled trees than at other parts of the edges. Thus, felled trees provided focal points for attacks within edges. 5 It is concluded that small numbers of wind‐felled trees colonized by I. typographus may be left near spruce stand edges without increasing the risk of beetle‐induced tree mortality.     

Optimal harvesting in forestry: steady-state analysis and climate change impact

We perform the steady-state analysis of a nonlinear partial differential equation model that describes the dynamics of a managed size-structured forest. The harvesting policy is to maximize the net benefits from timber production over an infinite planning horizon. The existence and uniqueness of the steady-state trajectories are analysed. Closed-form steady states are obtained in meaningful special cases and are used to estimate how climate change affects the optimal harvesting regime, diameter of cut trees, number of logged trees, and net benefits in the long run.     

Measuring fruit patch size for three sympatric indonesian primate species

Food availability is one of the basic factors affecting primate density and socioecology, but food availability is difficult to assess. Two different ways to obtain accurate estimates of food availability have been proposed: using phenology data or using the behaviour of animals. Phenology data can be refined by only including trees that are large enough to be used; including (potential) tree species in which by the concerned primate species forage; or including (fruiting) trees of these species that actually produce fruit. Alternatively, the sizes of the actually visited trees (foraging trees) give an estimate of fruit availability. These measures are compared for three sympatric primate species at the Ketambe Research Station, Sumatra, Indonesia: the Thomas langur, the long-tailed macaque and the orangutan. The sizes of fruiting trees and the foraging trees are larger than the potential trees. The sizes of the potential trees and of the fruiting trees are similar for the three primate species. This, however, is not reflected in the use of trees: the langurs forage on average in trees of similar size to those producing fruit, whereas the macaques and orangutans forage in trees larger than those producing fruit. The use of trees does not necessitate a different cut off point of included dbhs for the three compared primate species. The use of trees of different sizes, however, may be regulated by food competition. This indicates that sympatric primates make different foraging decisions and that behavioural measures of food availability will be less reliable.     

华南地区冬季开花植物及其园林应用

据调查,华南地区常用园林植物在冬季开花的有48科100余种(含部分品种和变种)。根据其生物学与生态学特性可划分为冬季开花、早春开花、四季开花、热带引种、人工育成新品种或促成栽培等五大类型。在园林上可作年宵花卉、行道树或景观树、地被植物以及切花等用途。     

Effects of Rootstocks and Interstocks on the Xylem Sap Composition in Apple Trees: Effects on Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium Content

This paper records the concentration of N, P, and K in sap whichexuded from the cut stumps of composite orchard apple trees.The trees were either single-worked on different rootstocksor incorporated various interstocks. While the volume of sap exuded per unit area of cut surfacedid not appear to vary with rootstock or interstock, exudatefrom the dwarfing rootstocks or interstocks contained depletedlevels of nutrients. A possible mechanism for rootstock and interstock effects isdiscussed in the light of these results.     

Water status of isolated Negev desert populations of Acacia raddiana with different mortality levels

Many populations of native Acacia raddiana trees in ephemeral riverbeds in the Negev desert are suffering from high mortality. Road-building techniques that cut off water to trees in downstream populations and the pumping of aquifers for agriculture have been mooted as causes of this mortality. We studied the water relations of nine isolated populations of these trees using a pressure chamber and stable carbon isotopes in order to determine whether current water stress could be the cause of this mortality. High mortality populations had more negative water potentials, lower relative water contents, and lower cell water volumes at full turgor than low mortality populations. Thus, mortality is correlated with current inter-population differences in water stress. However, there was no difference in water potentials between trees upstream and downstream of roads. Furthermore, greater water stress in trees after a dry winter than in the previous summer indicates that these trees are largely drawing on surface floods for water. Thus, road-building practices and aquifer pumping are unlikely causes of current water stress. Hence, water stress is linked to mortality in these trees, although our results indicate that irregular water stress (perhaps in drought years only) is probably the cause of this mortality.     

卧龙自然保护区林隙干扰特征

 林隙干扰对森林的结构和多样性的维持具有重要意义。对五一棚周围林隙干扰格局和林隙特征进行了3条样线调查,样线总长度为4.4 km。结果表明：1)本区以小型林隙干扰为主,林隙平均密度为12.5个•km-1,林隙的分布格局在阳坡和山脊为集聚分布,阴坡近均匀分布;林隙形成木以针叶树为主,岷江冷杉(Abies faxoniana)、铁杉(Tsuga chinensis)和糙皮桦(Betula utilis)在形成木的数量和径级组成上均居前列。2)林隙形成木的腐烂等级分布揭示出林隙形成木的形成方式和种类组成均随时间变化。表现为针叶树组形成木对林隙的贡献随时间降低,阔叶树组反之;砍伐和倒木是早期林隙形成的主要方式,而枯立和折干是近期林隙形成的主要方式。3)林隙木形成方式关联度分析结果为砍伐与倒木、折干与倒木之间存在显著负关联,林隙其它各形成方式之间的关联不显著,但砍伐与其它形成方式的负联结系数均较高。