Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings
Droughts, amplified by climate change, pose a significant threat to the success of both artificially and naturally regenerated forests. Understanding how these changes affect the initial stages of saplings development is crucial for forest establishment, particularly for ecologically and economicall...
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| Format: | Article |
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Sciendo
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Central European Forestry Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/forj-2024-0024 |
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| author | Arsić Janko Stojanović Marko Horáček Petr Mikhailov Sergei Krejza Jan |
| author_facet | Arsić Janko Stojanović Marko Horáček Petr Mikhailov Sergei Krejza Jan |
| author_sort | Arsić Janko |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Droughts, amplified by climate change, pose a significant threat to the success of both artificially and naturally regenerated forests. Understanding how these changes affect the initial stages of saplings development is crucial for forest establishment, particularly for ecologically and economically important species like Norway spruce and sessile oak in Central Europe. This study investigated the impact of crown reduction (CR) by 50% of crown length on saplings of each species. Automatic dendrometers were installed on 24 saplings per species to precisely monitor growth and water-related stem changes. The main objective was to investigate the potential ameliorative effect of CR on water-stressed saplings during their initial development. Our study hypothesized that CR, by decreasing leaf area and consequently water use, would improve water availability and facilitate sapling growth. The results indicate that CR may enhance soil water availability thereby supporting the growth of water-stressed Norway spruce saplings but not those of sessile oak. The tree water deficit – an indicator of tree water status – significantly improves in Norway spruce saplings subjected to CR (p < 0.05). Conversely, this treatment resulted in the depletion of stem water status in sessile oak saplings. The species-specific growth phenology revealed that CR led to an increase in the number of growing days for Norway spruce compared to sessile oak saplings. In summary, CR may be considered a beneficial method for alleviating stress in Norway spruce saplings, especially during drought. In addition, further testing in field conditions is necessary to confirm these results. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-005d85464c2141dcb94c90848901eaeb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2454-0358 |
| language | ces |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Central European Forestry Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-005d85464c2141dcb94c90848901eaeb2025-02-10T13:25:47ZcesSciendoCentral European Forestry Journal2454-03582025-02-0171131310.2478/forj-2024-0024Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplingsArsić Janko0Stojanović Marko1Horáček Petr2Mikhailov Sergei3Krejza Jan4Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a, CZ - 603 00Brno, Czech RepublicGlobal Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a, CZ - 603 00Brno, Czech RepublicGlobal Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a, CZ - 603 00Brno, Czech RepublicGlobal Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a, CZ - 603 00Brno, Czech RepublicGlobal Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a, CZ - 603 00Brno, Czech RepublicDroughts, amplified by climate change, pose a significant threat to the success of both artificially and naturally regenerated forests. Understanding how these changes affect the initial stages of saplings development is crucial for forest establishment, particularly for ecologically and economically important species like Norway spruce and sessile oak in Central Europe. This study investigated the impact of crown reduction (CR) by 50% of crown length on saplings of each species. Automatic dendrometers were installed on 24 saplings per species to precisely monitor growth and water-related stem changes. The main objective was to investigate the potential ameliorative effect of CR on water-stressed saplings during their initial development. Our study hypothesized that CR, by decreasing leaf area and consequently water use, would improve water availability and facilitate sapling growth. The results indicate that CR may enhance soil water availability thereby supporting the growth of water-stressed Norway spruce saplings but not those of sessile oak. The tree water deficit – an indicator of tree water status – significantly improves in Norway spruce saplings subjected to CR (p < 0.05). Conversely, this treatment resulted in the depletion of stem water status in sessile oak saplings. The species-specific growth phenology revealed that CR led to an increase in the number of growing days for Norway spruce compared to sessile oak saplings. In summary, CR may be considered a beneficial method for alleviating stress in Norway spruce saplings, especially during drought. In addition, further testing in field conditions is necessary to confirm these results.https://doi.org/10.2478/forj-2024-0024picea abies [l.] karst.quercus petraea [matt.] liebl.stem radial variationautomatic dendrometerswater availability |
| spellingShingle | Arsić Janko Stojanović Marko Horáček Petr Mikhailov Sergei Krejza Jan Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings Central European Forestry Journal picea abies [l.] karst. quercus petraea [matt.] liebl. stem radial variation automatic dendrometers water availability |
| title | Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings |
| title_full | Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings |
| title_fullStr | Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings |
| title_short | Assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and Norway spruce saplings |
| title_sort | assessing crown reduction as a strategy to mitigate drought stress during initial development of sessile oak and norway spruce saplings |
| topic | picea abies [l.] karst. quercus petraea [matt.] liebl. stem radial variation automatic dendrometers water availability |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/forj-2024-0024 |
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