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- Title
Intermediate wind disturbance in an old-growth beech-fir forest in southeastern Slovenia.
- Authors
Nagel, Thomas A.; Diaci, Jurij
- Abstract
We studied the immediate effects of two successive storms in 1983 and 2004 in an old-growth Fagus sylvatica L. – Abies alba Mill. forest in the Dinaric Alps, southeastern Slovenia. In the 1983 and 2004 storms the density and basal area of wind-killed trees were 27.4·ha–1 and 5.98 m2·ha–1 and 11.2·ha–1and 4.02 m2·ha–1, respectively. In both storm events, mid-sized to large stems were more prone to wind mortality than small stems, and A. alba was more susceptible than F. sylvatica. In the 2004 storm, 70% of wind-killed trees were uprooted and 30% were snapped. Tree size (diameter at breast height) was more important than species in determining damage type, smaller stems being more prone to uprooting and larger stems to snapping. The combined mortality due to the two storms was similar to a decade of baseline mortality, and wind-killed trees were larger than trees that died from background mortality processes. In both storms, wind-killed trees had a clumped spatial distribution, which resulted in the formation of many multiple-tree-fall gaps up to 1500 m2 in size. We suggest that intermediate wind disturbance occurs at time intervals similar to or less than the life expectancy of most canopy tree species in central Europe, and may play a more important role in forest dynamics than previously thought.
- Subjects
STORMS; EUROPEAN beech; FORESTS &; forestry; FOREST canopy ecology; TREES
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 2006, Vol 36, Issue 3, p629
- ISSN
0045-5067
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1139/X05-263