Silva Fennica vol. 31 no. 4 | 1997

The objectives of this study were to record residual stand damage during harvesting operations and evaluate the influence of factors such as distance of the tree from the strip road, machine parts, operational phase, on the occurrence of tree wounds. The machine was a farm tractor equipped with a crane mounted on the front axle and a single grip harvester head. The study was carried out in two stands located in Southeast Sweden. Stand 1 was a 30-year-old Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) plantation on an afforested pasture while stand 2 was a 90-year-old mixed stand of Norway spruce, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), birch (Betula pendula Roth) and aspen (Populus tremula L.).

The mean damage percentage was 6.3% for the first stand and 6.5% for the second stand. Sixty-five percent of the wounds were less than 50 cm², with 91% of the damage occurring on the stem and 91% of the damage on or below the root collar. Sixty-six percent of the wounds produced by the stem under processing or by the harvesting head while only 10% of the wounds were produced by the tractor wheel. Damaged trees were distributed evenly in the crane reach zone. Significant differences were found between rut depths after one, two, four and six passes of the tractor in stand 1.

• Athanassiadis, E-mail: da@mm.unknown

The paper elaborates upon various theories to explain economic development and restructuring in the forested regions of advanced countries. The concepts of communities based on the forest sector and the concept of restructuring are discussed before presenting the diversity of relevant theories. Different theoretical approaches in geography and regional and socio-economic sciences are analysed, and the paper concludes that each theory gives only a partial explanation of restructuring under certain conditions. This paper recommends that an explanatory framework should take into account – in addition to general explanatory factors – sectoral, local-specific and policy-related factors and the role of human agency in attempts to explain restructuring and development.

• Tykkyläinen, E-mail: mt@mm.unknown
• Hyttinen, E-mail: ph@mm.unknown
• Mononen, E-mail: am@mm.unknown

This study examined the relationships between forest management planning units and patches formed by forest habitat components. The test area used was a part of Koli National Park in North Karelia, eastern Finland. Forest management planning units (i.e. forest compartments) were defined by using a traditional method of Finnish forestry which applies aerial photographs and compartment-wise field inventory. Patches of forest habitat components were divided according to subjective rules by using a chosen set of variables depicting the edaphic features and vegetation of a forest habitat. The spatial distribution of the habitat components was estimated with the kriging-interpolation based on systematically located sample plots. The comparisons of the two patch mosaics were made by using the standard tools of GIS. The results of the study show that forest compartment division does not correlate very strongly with the forest habitat pattern. On average, the mean patch size of the forest habitat components is greater and the number of these patches lower compared to forest compartment division. However, if the forest habitat component distribution had been considered, the number of the forest compartments would have at least doubled after intersection.

• Uuttera, E-mail: ju@mm.unknown
• Hyppänen, E-mail: hh@mm.unknown

The study proposes a technique which enables the computation of user-defined indices for species diversity. These indices are derived from characteristics, called diversity indicators, of inventory plots, stand compartments, and the whole forest holding. The study discusses the modifications required to be made to typical forest planning systems due to this kind of biodiversity computation. A case study illustrating the use of the indices and a modified forest planning system is provided. In the case study, forest-level species diversity index was computed from the volume of dead wood, volume of broadleaved trees, area of old forest, and between-stand variety.

At the stand level, the area of old forest was replaced by stand age, and variety was described by within-stand variety. All but one of the indicators were further partitioned into two to four sub-indicators. For example, the volume of broadleaved trees was divided into volumes of birch, aspen, willow, and other tree species. The partial contribution of an indicator to the diversity index was obtained from a sub-priority function, determined separately for each indicator. The diversity index was obtained when the partial contributions were multiplied by the weights of the corresponding indicators and then were summed. The production frontiers computed for the harvested volume and diversity indices were concave, especially for the forest-level diversity index, indicating that diversity can be maintained at satisfactory level with medium harvest levels.

• Pukkala, E-mail: tp@mm.unknown
• Kangas, E-mail: jk@mm.unknown
• Kniivilä, E-mail: mk@mm.unknown
• Tiainen, E-mail: at@mm.unknown

The effects of precommercial thinning on the quantity and external quality of young Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands were examined over two 10-year periods in an experiment comprising five stands growing on sub-dry sites in Finnish Lapland, northern Finland. The thinning treatments applied resulted in stand densities of 625, 1111, 1600, 2500 and 4444 stems ha^-1 and a no-treatment, unthinned plot with a randomised block lay-out of two or three replications in each stand. The dominant height of the stands varied between 4 and 8 m at the time of thinning.

The trees reacted only slightly to the increase in growing space during the first ten years following precommercial thinning. During the second 10-year period, increased growing space was reflected more clearly in diameter and volume increment. These reactions were more evident in stands thinned at an early stage. The increment of the thinnest 100–200 trees ha^-1 in each treatment was poor. The results showed that when the main principle in precommercial thinning is to achieve even spacing, the remaining smallest trees fail to react positively to the increase in growing space. In other words, the target of precommercial thinning should be to concentrate the increment on the tallest trees, even though they are located in groups. The external quality of the trees in stands where precommercial thinning was carried out at a later stage was high, and the diameter of the thickest branch along the butt log remained under 20 mm. Branch diameter was greater in stands thinned at an early stage. The effect of precommercial thinning on branch diameter when comparing the extreme treatments averaged 5 mm. When the aim of stand management is to combine high quality and good yield in naturally regenerated Scots pine stands in northern Finland, precommercial thinning should not be carried out before the dominant height of 7–8 m. The intensity of precommercial thinning depends on the yield targets of the first commercial thinning. A spacing of 2,500 stems ha^-1 satisfies the requirements of both high quality and adequate yield.

• Ruha, E-mail: tr@mm.unknown
• Varmola, E-mail: mv@mm.unknown

Dry mass and nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, B) contents of field layer vegetation and a combination of bottom layer vegetation and litter (referred to as bottom/litter layer in the text) were studied one year before and three years after fertilization (NPK and PK) on a drained low-shrub pine bog in eastern Finland. The results of an earlier study on the tree layer were combined with those of this study in order to estimate the changes caused by fertilization in the total plant biomass and litter. Before fertilization the average dry mass of the field and bottom/litter layers was 8,400 kg ha^-1 and 7,650 kg ha^-1, respectively. The above-ground parts accounted for 25% of the total field layer biomass. The dry mass of the field and bottom/litter layers together was < 20% of the dry mass accumulated in the total plant biomass and litter. The corresponding figures for N, P, K, Ca, Mg and B were 44%, 38%, 30%, 38%, 31% and 17%, respectively. Fertilization did not significantly affect the dry mass of either the field layer vegetation or the bottom/litter layer. 33% of the applied P was accumulated in the total plant biomass and litter on the PK-fertilized plots, and 25% on the NPK-fertilized plots. For the other elements, the proportions on the PK-fertilized plots were K 31%, Ca 6%, Mg 11% and B 13%. On the NPK-fertilized plots, the corresponding figures were N 62%, K 32%, Ca 6%, Mg 9% and B 13%. Except for B and K, the accumulation of fertilizer nutrients in the understorey vegetation and litter was of the same magnitude or greater than the uptake by the tree layer.

• Finér, E-mail: lf@mm.unknown
• Nieminen, E-mail: mn@mm.unknown

Dormant needles from 129 Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) trees from the 2nd and 3rd topmost whorls were collected from spruce stands locating fairly close to each other. Tree height varied from 8 to 25 metres. Trees with and without visual potassium deficiency symptoms in needles were selected and analysed for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, boron, copper, zinc, and 3 free polyamines putrescine, spermine and spermidine.

The concentrations of all the analysed nutrients ranged from deficient to satisfactory levels. Free putrescine, spermidine and spermine concentrations in the current needles had a wide variation between the trees. Spermidine had a positive and spermine a negative correlation with potassium. Putrescine had a strong negative correlation with potassium with statistically significant increase in putrescine starting at potassium concentrations below 5.4 mg/g dry weight. The regression between putrescine and potassium changed from a linear to a non-linear form at the potassium concentration of 4.2–4.6 mg/g dry weight representing a severe K deficiency limit. The corresponding K/P ratio was 2.6–2.7. Extremely low phosphorus concentrations (P < 1.0 mg/g) lowered putrescine concentrations, but otherwise the relationships between putrescine, spermidine or spermine and potassium concentrations were unaffected by tree nutrition. At adequate potassium levels the putrescine concentrations were only slightly lower in trees taller than 20 metres than in trees of 8–16 metres height. The results show that the needle putrescine concentration can be used quite reliably for describing potassium nutrition of Norway spruce in varying nutritional and tree size conditions.

• Kaunisto, E-mail: sk@mm.unknown
• Sarjala, E-mail: ts@mm.unknown