Wind loading of trees: influence of tree size and competition (original) (raw)

Abstract

Wind damage to forests is an important ecological disturbance factor. At the same time, it can have serious economic consequences due to a reduction in timber production. Current models for predicting the risk of wind damage are useful, but generally only focus on the “mean” tree within uniform stands. This paper presents measurements made of wind loading on trees of different sizes within four forest stands of different structure and management history, but all well-acclimated to current wind conditions. Each tree demonstrated a linear relationship between the maximum hourly turning moment and the square of the average hourly wind speed at the canopy top; we defined this ratio (the gradient of the line M max vs. u 2) as the turning moment coefficient (T C). T C was correlated with tree size, in a relationship that differed little between the four forest sites despite the differences between the stands. The relationship between T C and individual tree competition within each stand was investigated, using both distance-independent and distance-dependent competition indices. All sites showed decreasing T C with increasing competition. However, the relationships differed between sites and would also be expected to change through time for a single site. The distance-dependent indices offered no improvement over the simpler, non-spatial indices that required only a diameter distribution. We suggest how, subject to further work, the results presented could be applied to calculate the risk of wind damage to trees of different sizes within a forest stand, and how the risk of wind damage to individual trees might change in response to thinning.

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Notes

1. The assumption in all wind damage risk modelling to date is that the extreme (maximum) wind loading in any particular storm is the key factor in determining whether damage occurs. However, this has never been verified in field experiments due to the lack of measurements during damaging storms, and it is possible that root fatiguing (Rogers et al. 1995) from a number of storms could actually be more important.

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Acknowledgments

All work presented in this paper was funded by the G.B. Forestry Commission. We would also like to thank the following people for assistance with this work: Dave Brooks, John Strachan and Jim Nicholl for technical help with the logging systems; Arne Pommerening and the Tyfiant Coed team (Bangor University) for access to, and data from, Clocaenog; Peter Hale (Hale Association) and Ian Robinson (Scottish Woodland), for allowing us to conduct an experiment within Kyloe Wood; Sigrid Dengel (University of Edinburgh) for providing wind speed and direction data for Harwood; Carl Foster, Brian Jones, Dai Evans, Shaun Mochan, Justin Chappell, Sophie Bertin and Colin Gordon for assistance with field work; Cynthia Moore for data processing and Tom Connolly for statistical analysis. Thanks also Victoria Stokes and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on this manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Forest Research, Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9SY, UK
   Sophie E. Hale, Barry A. Gardiner, Axel Wellpott, Bruce C. Nicoll & Alexis Achim
2. Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AL, UK
   Axel Wellpott
3. Faculté de foresterie et de géomatique, Université Laval, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada
   Alexis Achim

Authors

1. Sophie E. Hale
2. Barry A. Gardiner
3. Axel Wellpott
4. Bruce C. Nicoll
5. Alexis Achim

Corresponding author

Correspondence toSophie E. Hale.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Bauhus.

This article belongs to the special issue ‘Wind Effects on Trees’.

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Hale, S.E., Gardiner, B.A., Wellpott, A. et al. Wind loading of trees: influence of tree size and competition.Eur J Forest Res 131, 203–217 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-010-0448-2

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• Received: 25 February 2010
• Revised: 31 August 2010
• Accepted: 20 October 2010
• Published: 23 November 2010
• Issue date: January 2012
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-010-0448-2

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