Contrasting Development of Canopy Structure and Primary Production in Planted and Naturally Regenerated Red Pine Forests
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Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23220, USA
2
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment & Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
3
Wildland Resources Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84321, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Forests 2019, 10(7), 566; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10070566
Received: 6 June 2019
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Revised: 27 June 2019
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Accepted: 4 July 2019
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Published: 8 July 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Connection of Forest Dynamics and Carbon Accumulation)
Globally, planted forests are rapidly replacing naturally regenerated stands but the implications for canopy structure, carbon (C) storage, and the linkages between the two are unclear. We investigated the successional dynamics, interlinkages and mechanistic relationships between wood net primary production (NPPw) and canopy structure in planted and naturally regenerated red pine (Pinus resinosa Sol. ex Aiton) stands spanning ≥ 45 years of development. We focused our canopy structural analysis on leaf area index (LAI) and a spatially integrative, terrestrial LiDAR-based complexity measure, canopy rugosity, which is positively correlated with NPPw in several naturally regenerated forests, but which has not been investigated in planted stands. We estimated stand NPPw using a dendrochronological approach and examined whether canopy rugosity relates to light absorption and light–use efficiency. We found that canopy rugosity increased similarly with age in planted and naturally regenerated stands, despite differences in other structural features including LAI and stem density. However, the relationship between canopy rugosity and NPPw was negative in planted and not significant in naturally regenerated stands, indicating structural complexity is not a globally positive driver of NPPw. Underlying the negative NPPw-canopy rugosity relationship in planted stands was a corresponding decline in light-use efficiency, which peaked in the youngest, densely stocked stand with high LAI and low structural complexity. Even with significant differences in the developmental trajectories of canopy structure, NPPw, and light use, planted and naturally regenerated stands stored similar amounts of C in wood over a 45-year period. We conclude that widespread increases in planted forests are likely to affect age-related patterns in canopy structure and NPPw, but planted and naturally regenerated forests may function as comparable long-term C sinks via different structural and mechanistic pathways.
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Keywords:
Pinus resinosa Sol. Ex Aiton; red pine; net primary production; leaf area index; LiDAR; canopy rugosity; forest succession; light; fPAR; chronosequence; light use efficiency
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hickey, L.J.; Atkins, J.; Fahey, R.T.; Kreider, M.R.; Wales, S.B.; Gough, C.M. Contrasting Development of Canopy Structure and Primary Production in Planted and Naturally Regenerated Red Pine Forests. Forests 2019, 10, 566. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10070566
AMA Style
Hickey LJ, Atkins J, Fahey RT, Kreider MR, Wales SB, Gough CM. Contrasting Development of Canopy Structure and Primary Production in Planted and Naturally Regenerated Red Pine Forests. Forests. 2019; 10(7):566. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10070566
Chicago/Turabian StyleHickey, Laura J., Jeff Atkins, Robert T. Fahey, Mark R. Kreider, Shea B. Wales, and Christopher M. Gough. 2019. "Contrasting Development of Canopy Structure and Primary Production in Planted and Naturally Regenerated Red Pine Forests" Forests 10, no. 7: 566. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10070566
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