Estimating the mechanical stability of Pinus nigra Arn. using an alternative approach across several plantations in central Italy

doi:10.3832/ifor1300-007

Estimating the mechanical stability of Pinus nigra Arn. using an alternative approach across several plantations in central Italy

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 8, Issue 6, Pages 846-852 (2015)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor1300-007
Published: Apr 08, 2015 - Copyright © 2015 SISEF

Research Articles

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

Black pine has been used often in central and southern Italy to reforest mountainous areas depleted by the intensive use of natural resources. The main purpose of establishing pine forests in Italy was to protect the soil from excessive erosion, and also to facilitate the natural succession toward mixed forests with deciduous species. The most common silvicultural treatments in Europe currently aim at maximizing the stability of the stands and facilitating the transition from pure to mixed stands comprising a larger component of native tree species. In this work, we investigated the relationships between the living whorls number and four indexes of individual tree stability: the slenderness ratio, the crown depth, the crown projection, and an eccentricity index of the canopy. The data set used was composed of 1098 trees from ten black pine plantations located in central Italy. Our results demonstrate that the living whorls number can be handily used to predict the slenderness ratio with an error of 18%. A non-parametric model based on a reduced number of field measures was obtained as a support for thinning operations aimed at improving single tree stability.

Keywords

Black Pine, Tree Stability, Living Whorl Number, Slenderness Ratio, Crown Depth, Crown Projection, Crown Eccentricity

Authors’ address

(1)

Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Forestry Research Center, v.le Santa Margherita 80, I-52100 Arezzo (Italy)

Corresponding author

Ugo Chiavetta
ugo.chiavetta@entecra.it

Citation

Cantiani P, Chiavetta U (2015). Estimating the mechanical stability of Pinus nigra Arn. using an alternative approach across several plantations in central Italy. iForest 8: 846-852. - doi: 10.3832/ifor1300-007

Academic Editor

Chris Eastaugh

Paper history

Received: Mar 26, 2014
Accepted: Oct 18, 2014

First online: Apr 08, 2015
Publication Date: Dec 01, 2015
Publication Time: 5.73 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 21621
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 16006
Abstract Page Views: 799
PDF Downloads: 3336
Citation/Reference Downloads: 25
XML Downloads: 1455

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 3299
Overall contacts: 21621
Avg. contacts per week: 45.88

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Nov 2020)

Total number of cites (since 2015): 9
Average cites per year: 1.50

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

Abetz P (1987)
Why the crop tree aligned thinning system (ZB-Df) increases the stability and productivity of stands. In: Proceedings of the “Development of Thinning Systems to Reduce Stand Damages. IUFRO Group S1.05-05” (Knutell H ed). Department of Operational Efficiency, Faculty of Forestry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Garpenberg, Sweden, pp. 35-42.
Gscholar

(2)

Bachofen H, Zingg A (2001)
Effectiveness of structure improvement thinning on stand structure in subalpine Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) stands. Forest Ecology and Management 145: 137-149.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(3)

Bequey J, Riou-Nivert P (1987)
L’existence de “zones de stabilité” des peuplements. Conséquences sur la gestion [The existence of “stability zones” of the stands. Management implications]. Revue Forestière Française 39 (4): 323-334. [in French]
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Bianchi L, Paci M, Bresciani A (2010)
Effects of thinning intensities in experimental plots of Black European pine in “Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park” (Tosco-Romagnolo Apennine, Italy), eight years after the felling. Forest@ - Journal of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (2): 73-83. [in Italian with English summary]
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Bouchon J (1987)
Etat de la recherche relative aux dég’ts forestiers dus aux tempêtes [State of the art of research on forest damage caused by storms]. Revue Forestière Française 39 (4): 301-312. [in French]
CrossRef | Gscholar

(6)

Brüchert F, Gardiner B (2006)
The effect of wind exposure on the tree aerial architecture and biomechanics of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis, Pinaceae). American Journal of Botany 93 (10): 1512-21.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(7)

Bussotti F (2002)
Pinus nigra Arnold. In: “Pines of Silvicultural Importance”. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK, pp. 266-286.
Gscholar

(8)

Cameron AD (2002)
Importance of early selective thinning in the development of long-term stand stability and improved log quality: a review. Forestry 75 (1): 25-35.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Cantiani P, Plutino M, Amorini E (2010)
Effects of silvicultural treatment on the stability of black pine plantations. Annals of Silvicultural Research 36: 49-58.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(10)

Castedo-Dorado F, Crecente-Campo F, Alvarez-Alvarez P, Barrio-Anta M (2009)
Development of a stand density management diagram for radiata pine stands including assessment of stand stability. Forestry 82 (1): 1-16.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(11)

Cleveland WS (1978)
Robust locally weighted regression and smoothing scatterplots. Journal of the American Statistical Association 74 (368): 829-836.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(12)

Cleveland WS (1981)
LOWESS: a program for smoothing scatterplots by robust locally weighted regression. American Statistician 35 (1): 54.
Gscholar

(13)

Cleveland WS, Devlin SJ (1988)
Locally weighted regression: an approach to regression analysis by local fitting. Journal of the American Statistical Association 83 (403): 596-610. URL.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(14)

Copeland JH, Pielke RA, Kittel TGF (1996)
Potential climatic impacts of vegetation change: a regional modeling study. Journal of Geophysical Research 101 (D3): 7409.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Coutts MP (1983)
Root architecture and tree stability. Plant and Soil 71 (1-3): 171-188.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(16)

Cremer K, Borough C, McKinnell F, Carter P (1982)
Effects of stocking and thinning on wind damage in [pine] plantations. New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science 12: 244-268.
Online | Gscholar

(17)

Cucchi V, Bert D (2003)
Wind-firmness in Pinus pinaster Ait. stands in southwest France: influence of stand density, fertilisation and breeding in two experimental stands damaged during the 1999 storm. Annals of Forest Science 60 (3): 209-226.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Dunn OJ (1961)
Multiple comparisons among means. Journal of the American Statistical Association 56 (293): 52-64. URL.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(19)

Faber PJ, Sissingh G (1975)
Stability of stands to wind. I. A theoretical approach. II. The practical viewpoint. Nederlands Bosbouwtijdschrift 47 (7-8): 179-193.
Gscholar

(20)

Gardiner BA, Stacey GR, Belcher RE, Wood CJ (1997)
Field and wind tunnel assessments of the implications of respacing and thinning for tree stability. Forestry 70 (3): 233-252.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(21)

Gasparini P, Tabacchi G (2011)
L’Inventario Nazionale delle Foreste e dei serbatoi forestali di Carbonio INFC 2005. Secondo inventario forestale nazionale italiano. Metodi e risultati [National Forest and Carbon sink Inventory INFC 2005. Second Italian national forest inventory. Methods and results]. Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali, Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Unità di ricerca per il Monitoraggio e la Pianificazione Forestale, Edagricole-Il Sole 24 ore, Bologna, Italy, pp. 653. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(22)

Hamilton GJ, Christie JM (1971)
Forest management tables (metric). Forestry Commission Booklet 34, HM Stationery Office, London, UK, pp. 201.
Gscholar

(23)

Harrell FE (2012)
Hmisc: Harrell Miscellaneous. R package version 3.9-3, web site.
Online | Gscholar

(24)

Heitz R, Hasenauer H (2000)
Reconversion of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L. ) Karst. ) stands into mixed forests: effects on soil properties and nutrient fluxes. In: Proceedings of the International Conference “Forest ecosystem restoration: ecological and economical impacts of restoration processes in secondary coniferous forests”. Vienna (Austria) 10-12 Apr 2000. Institute of Forest Growth Research, Vienna, Austria, pp. 119-125.
Online | Gscholar

(25)

Hinze WHF, Wessels NO (2002)
Stand stability in pines: an important silvicultural criterion for the evaluation of thinnings and the development of thinning regimes. The Southern African Forestry Journal 196 (1): 37-40.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(26)

Kenk G, Guehne S (2001)
Management of transformation in central Europe. Forest Ecology and Management 151 (1-3): 107-119.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(27)

Kint V, Geudens G, Mohren GMJ, Lust N (2006)
Silvicultural interpretation of natural vegetation dynamics in ageing Scots pine stands for their conversion into mixed broadleaved stands. Forest Ecology and Management 223 (1-3): 363-370.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(28)

Konôpka J (1999)
Ohrozenie lesných porastov mechanicky pôsobiacimi abiotickými činitelmi [Abiotic factors threatening the mechanical stability of forest stands]. Lesnícky časopis (Forestry Journal) 45: 51-72. [in Slovak]
Gscholar

(29)

La Marca O (2005)
Studi e ricerche sui danni da neve e vento nella foresta di Vallombrosa [Studies and researches on wind and snow damages in the forest of Vallombrosa]. L’Italia Forestale e Montana 60 (2): 193-202. [in Italian]
Online | Gscholar

(30)

Malcolm DC, Mason WL, Clarke GC (2001)
The transformation of conifer forests in Britain - regeneration, gap size and silvicultural systems. Forest Ecology and Management 151 (1-3): 7-23.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(31)

Milne R (1995)
Modelling mechanical stresses in living Sitka spruce stems. In: “Wind and Trees” (Coutts MP, Grace J eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 165-181.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(32)

Mitchell SJ (2000)
Stem growth responses in Douglas-fir and Sitka spruce following thinning: implications for assessing wind-firmness. Forest Ecology and Management 135 (1-3): 105-114.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(33)

Moore JR (2000)
Differences in maximum resistive bending moments of Pinus radiata trees grown on a range of soil types. Forest Ecology and Management 135 (1-3): 63-71.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(34)

Mosandl R, Kessner R (1999)
Conversion of pure pine and spruce forests into mixed forests in eastern Germany: some aspects of silvicultural strategy. In: “Management of Mixed-Species Forests: Silviculture and Economics (vol. 15)” (Olsthoorn AFM, Bartelink HH, Gardiner JJ, Pretzsch H, Hekhuis HJ, Franc A eds). IBN Scientific Contributions, Wageningen, The Netherlands, pp. 208-218.
Gscholar

(35)

Nicoll BC, Gardiner BA, Rayner B, Peace AJ (2006)
Anchorage of coniferous trees in relation to species, soil type, and rooting depth. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 36 (7): 1871-1883.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(36)

Peltola H (2006)
Mechanical stability of trees under static loads. American journal of botany 93 (10): 1501-1511.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(37)

Peltola H, Kellomäki S, Hassinen A, Granander M (2000)
Mechanical stability of Scots pine, Norway spruce and birch: an analysis of tree-pulling experiments in Finland. Forest Ecology and Management 135 (1-3): 143-153.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(38)

Peters A, Hothorn T (2009)
Ipred: improved predictors. Web repository, pp. 11.
Online | Gscholar

(39)

Petty JA, Swain C (1985)
Factors influencing stem breakage of conifers in high winds. Forestry 58 (1): 75-84.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(40)

Piermattei A, Renzaglia F, Urbinati C (2012)
Recent expansion of Pinus nigra Arn. above the timberline in the central Apennines, Italy. Annals of Forest Science 69 (4): 509-517.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(41)

Pretzsch H (2010)
Forest dynamics, growth and yield. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 664.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(42)

Quine CP (1995)
Assessing the risk of wind damage to forests: practice and pitfalls. In: “Wind and Trees” (Coutts MP ed). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 379-403.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(43)

Quine CP (2000)
Estimation of mean wind climate and probability of strong winds for wind risk assessment. Forestry 73 (3): 247-258.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(44)

R Core Team (2013)
R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
Online | Gscholar

(45)

Shapiro SS, Wilk MB (1965)
An analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples). Biometrika 52 (3-4): 591-611.
Online | Gscholar

(46)

Slodicak M, Novak J (2006)
Silvicultural measures to increase the mechanical stability of pure secondary Norway spruce stands before conversion. Forest Ecology and Management 224 (3): 252-257.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(47)

Spearman C (1904)
The proof and measurement of association between two things. The American journal of psychology 100 (3-4): 441-71. URL.
Online | Gscholar

(48)

Talkkari A, Peltola H, Kellomäki S, Strandman H (2000)
Integration of component models from the tree, stand and regional levels to assess the risk of wind damage at forest margins. Forest Ecology and Management 135 (1-3): 303-313.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(49)

Thomasius H, Eutter D, Marsch M (1986)
Massnahmen zur Stabilisierung von Fichtenforsten gegenüber Schnee-und Sturmschàden [Measures to stabilize Norway spruce plantations towards wind and snow damages]. In: Proceedings of the “18th IUFRO Conference”. Ljubljana (Slovenia) 7-21 September 1986. Jugoslavenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, Zagreb, Croatia, pp. 103. [in German]
Gscholar

(50)

Valinger E, Lundqvist L, Bondesson L (1993)
Assessing the risk of snow and wind damage from tree physical characteristics. Forestry 66 (3): 249-260.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(51)

Vanninen P, Ylitalo H, Sievänen R, Mäkelä A (1996)
Effects of age and site quality on the distribution of biomass in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Trees 10 (4): 231-238.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(52)

Von Gadow K, Bredenkamp B (1992)
Forest management. Academica, Pretoria, South Africa, pp. 151.
Gscholar

(53)

Wang Y, Titus SJ, LeMay VM (1998)
Relationships between tree slenderness coefficients and tree or stand characteristics for major species in boreal mixedwood forests. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 28 (8): 1171-1183.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(54)

Wilson JS, Oliver CD (2000)
Stability and density management in Douglas-fir plantations. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 30 (6): 910-920.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(55)

Zeng H, Garcia-Gonzalo J, Peltola H, Kellomäki S (2010)
The effects of forest structure on the risk of wind damage at a landscape level in a boreal forest ecosystem. Annals of Forest Science 67 (1): 111-111.
CrossRef | Gscholar

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

Contents

Search

Journal Info

Journal Subjects and Fields

For Authors

For Reviewers

For Readers

SISEF Publishing

Search iForest Contents