Properties of boundary-line release criteria in North American tree species (original) (raw)

Abstract

• • Boundary line release criteria are increasingly applied to evaluate forest disturbance histories from tree-ring data. However, a number of important properties central to the technique have not been evaluated, including: (i) the ability of boundary line release criteria to standardize releases across various sites, species, and tree life stages (ii) the minimum sample sizes necessary for developing boundary lines, and (iii) the degree to which the criteria can resolve the degree of crown exposure following a disturbance event.
• • In an analysis of eleven North American tree species, boundary line release criteria do not fully compensate for declines in release response a tree experiences with increasing age and size, with the exception Tsuga canadensis.
• • A bootstrapping analysis indicates that approximately 50 000 ring width measurements are necessary to develop boundary line release criteria for a given species.
• • In a Quercus prinus stand, boundary line release criteria better predict the degree of crown exposure following a disturbance than an earlier running mean technique.
• • Despite certain limitations, boundary line release criteria have the potential to standardize release calculation across most life stages of a tree, and possibly among sites and species.

Résumé

• • Les lignes limites de dégagement sont des critères de plus en plus appliqués pour évaluer l’historique des perturbation des forêts à partir des données des cernes des arbres. Toutefois, un certain nombre de propriétés importantes au cœur de la technique n’ont pas été évaluées, y compris : (i) la capacité du critère de la ligne limite de dégagement pour standardiser les dégagements à travers différents sites, espèces et stades de la vie des arbres, (ii) la taille minimale des échantillons nécessaires pour le développement de lignes limites, et (iii) le degré avec lequel les critères peuvent résoudre le degré d’exposition de la couronne suite à un événement perturbant.
• • Dans une analyse de onze espèces d’arbres d’Amérique du Nord, les critères de ligne limite ne compensent pas entièrement la baisse de réponse au dégagement d’un arbre en relation avec l’âge et la dimension, à l’exception Tsuga canadensis.
• • Une analyse bootstrap indique que près de 50 000 mesures de largeur sont nécessaires pour développer des critères de ligne limite de dégagement pour une espèce donnée.
• • Dans un peuplement de Quercus prinus, les critères de ligne limite de dégagement permettent de mieux prédire le degré d’exposition de la couronne à la suite d’une perturbation que la technique de la moyenne courante.
• • En dépit de certaines limitations, les critères de ligne de limite de dégagement ont le potentiel de standardiser les calculs de dégagement dans la plupart des étapes de la vie d’un arbre et, éventuellement, entre les sites et les espèces.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

• Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
• Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
• Cancel anytime View plans

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

• Abrams M.D., van de Gevel S., Dodson R.C., and Copenheaver C.A., 2000. The dendroecology and climatic impacts for old-growth white pine and hemlock on the extreme slopes of the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, USA. Can. J. Bot. 78: 851–861.
  Google Scholar
• Abrams M.D., Copenheaver C.A., Black B.A., and van de Gevel S., 2001. Dendroecology and climatic impacts for a relict, old-growth, bog forest in the Ridge and Valley Province of central Pennsylvania, USA. Can. J. Bot. 79: 58–69.
  Google Scholar
• Black B.A. and Abrams M.D., 2003. Use of boundary-line growth patterns as a basis for dendroecological release criteria. Ecol. Appl. 13: 1733–1749.
  Article Google Scholar
• Black B.A. and Abrams M.D., 2004. Development and application of boundary-line release criteria. Dendrochronologia 22: 31–42.
  Article Google Scholar
• Burns R.M. and Honkala B.H., 1990. Silvics of North America, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington, D.C.
  Google Scholar
• Cade B.S. and Noon B.R., 2003. A gentle introduction to quantile regression for ecologists. Front. Ecol. Environ. 1: 412–420.
  Article Google Scholar
• Dahir S.E. and Lorimer C.G., 1996. Variation in canopy gap formation among developmental stages of northern hardwood stands. Can. J. For. Res. 26: 1875–1892.
  Article Google Scholar
• Druckenbrod D.L., 2005. Dendroecological reconstructions of forest disturbance history using time-series analysis with intervention detection. Can. J. For. Res. 35: 868–876.
  Article Google Scholar
• Forrester J.A., Leopold D.J., and Art H.W., 2007. Disturbance history and mortality patterns in a rare Atlantic barrier island maritime holly forest. Nat. Area. J. 27: 169–182.
  Article Google Scholar
• Fraver S. and White A.S., 2005. Identifying growth releases in dendrochronological studies of forest disturbance. Can. J. For. Res. 35: 1648–1656.
  Article Google Scholar
• Grissino-Mayer H.D. and Fritts H.C., 1997. The International Tree-Ring Data Bank: An enhanced global database serving the global scientific community. Holocene 7: 235–238.
  Article Google Scholar
• Lafon C.W. and Speer J.H., 2002. Using dendrochronology to identify major ice storm events in oak forests of southwestern Virginia. Clim. Res. 20: 41–54.
  Article Google Scholar
• Lorimer C.G. and Frelich L.E., 1989. A Methodology for Estimating Canopy Disturbance Frequency and Intensity in Dense Temperate Forests. Can. J. For. Res. 19: 651–663.
  Article Google Scholar
• Meko D., Cook E.R., Stahle D.W., Stockton C.W., and Hughes M.K., 1993. Spatial patterns of tree-growth anomalies in the United-States and southeastern Canada. J. Climate 6: 1773–1786.
  Article Google Scholar
• Nagel T.A., Levanic T., and Diaci J., 2007. A dendroecological reconstruction of disturbance in an old-growth Fagus-Abies forest in Slovenia. Ann. For. Sci. 64: 891–897.
  Article Google Scholar
• Nowacki G.J. and Abrams M.D., 1997. Radial-growth averaging criteria for reconstructing disturbance histories from presettlement-origin oaks. Ecol. Monogr. 67: 225–249.
  Google Scholar
• Rentch J.S., Desta F., and Miller G.W., 2002. Climate, canopy disturbance, and radial growth averaging in a second-growth mixed-oak forest in West Virginia, USA. Can. J. For. Res. 32: 915–927.
  Article Google Scholar
• Rentch J.S., Fajvan M.A., and Hicks R.R., 2003. Oak establishment and canopy accession strategies in five old-growth stands in the central hardwood forest region. For. Ecol. Manage. 184: 285–297.
  Article Google Scholar
• Rozas V., 2003. Regeneration patterns, dendroecology, and forest-use history in an old-growth beech-oak lowland forest in Northern Spain. For. Ecol. Manage. 182: 175–194.
  Article Google Scholar
• Rubino D.L. and McCarthy B.C., 2004. Comparative analysis of dendroecological methods used to assess disturbance events. Dendrochronologia 21: 97–115.
  Article Google Scholar
• Ruffner C.M. and Abrams M.D., 1998. Relating land-use history and climate to the dendroecology of a 326-year-old Quercus prinus talus slope forest. Can. J. For. Res. 28: 347–358.
  Article Google Scholar
• Schuler T.M. and Fajvan M.A., 1999. Understory tree characteristics and disturbance history of a Central Appalachian forest prior to old-growth harvesting, USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC.
  Google Scholar
• Shumway D.L., Abrams M.D., and Ruffner C.M., 2001. A 400-year history of fire and oak recruitment in an old-growth oak forest in western Maryland, USA. Can. J. For. Res. 31: 1437–1443.
  Article Google Scholar
• Speer J.H., Swetnam T.W., Wickman B.E., and Youngblood A., 2001. Changes in pandora moth outbreak dynamics during the past 622 years. Ecology 82: 679–697.
  Article Google Scholar
• Splechtna B.E., Gratzer G., and Black B.A., 2005. Disturbance history of a European old-growth mixed-species forest — A spatial dendroecological analysis. J. Veg. Sci. 16: 511–522.
  Google Scholar
• Thompson R.D., Daniels L.D., and Lewis K.J., 2007. A new dendroecological method to differentiate growth responses to fine-scale disturbance from regional-scale environmental variation. Can. J. For. Res. 37: 1034–1043.
  Article Google Scholar
• Webster C.R. and Jensen N.R., 2007. A shift in the gap dynamics of Betula alleghaniensis in response to single-tree selection. Can. J. For. Res. 37: 682–689.
  Article Google Scholar
• Winter L.E., Brubaker L.B., Franklin J.F., Miller E.A., and DeWitt D.Q., 2002. Canopy disturbances over the five-century lifetime of an old-growth Douglas-fir stand in the Pacific Northwest. Can. J. For. Res. 32: 1057–1070.
  Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Hatfield Marine Science Center, 2030 Marine Science Drive, 97365, Newport, OR, USA
   Bryan A. Black
2. School of Forest Resources, Penn State University, 4 Ferguson Building, 16802, University Park, PA, USA
   Marc D. Abrams
3. Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6125, 26506, Morgantown, WV, USA
   James S. Rentch
4. Forest Sciences Laboratory, US Forest Service, 3625 93rd Ave. SW, 98512, Olympia, WA, USA
   Peter J. Gould

Authors

1. Bryan A. Black
2. Marc D. Abrams
3. James S. Rentch
4. Peter J. Gould

Corresponding author

Correspondence toBryan A. Black.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Black, B.A., Abrams, M.D., Rentch, J.S. et al. Properties of boundary-line release criteria in North American tree species.Ann. For. Sci. 66, 205 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1051/forest/2008087

Download citation

• Received: 18 June 2008
• Accepted: 26 November 2008
• Issue date: January 2009
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/forest/2008087

Keywords

Mots-clés