Abstract
Branch growth in Larix gmelinii was estimated by several methods. Sample trees were felled in Laoshan (northeastern China) and Sapporo (northern Japan). Estimates of the annual woody growth of branches calculated by the growth ratio of the cross-sectional area of each branch base were found to be lower compared with those calculated by a detailed method, in which branch growth was estimated by growth-ring analysis of radial segments in different age classes. A linear relationship was observed between the annual woody growth/whole branch mass ratio and the relative depth within the crown (RDC), where the distance between the treetop and crown base was set to 1.0. The total annual woody branch growth of each tree was estimated using this relationship by multiplying the ratio by the whole branch mass at a given RDC and adding the products from the treetop to the crown base. Alternative estimates were obtained using the total branch growth, defined as the annual woody growth plus leaf mass, and the 1 − RDC relationship. Estimates obtained by these methods were similar to those obtained by detailed growth-ring analysis of branches. Estimates obtained by the growth/mass ratio for only the stem within the crown were also compared with those obtained by detailed growth-ring analysis.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Y. Matsuura, S. Sasaki, G. Utsugi, Y. Kominami, and T. Miyama of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute for their kind assistance. We also thank M. Dannoura, J. Kimura, H. Aimura, B.-J. Sheng, T. Sasaki, M. Suzuki, R. Xingrl, A. Iwasaki, K. Yoshimura, I. Heriansyah, D. Suzuki, S. Hamada, H. Takeno, T. Tsuji, S. Tsuji (Asano), M. Fukui, N. Misawa, M. Shimmi, K. Kimura, N. Makita, and other members of the Laboratory of Forest Resources, Kobe University, for their help in the field and laboratory. We also thank X. Li, S. Cui, and other staff members of Northeast Forestry University for their kind help and support during the field work. Thanks are also due to N. Masuoka of Nihon Tochi Sanrin for his kind cooperation and to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was supported by the Global Environmental Research Fund S-A (FY2002-2006) of the Ministry of Environment, Japan.
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Kanazawa, Y., Ishii, H.T., Homma, S. et al. Comparison of branch growth estimates in Larix gmelinii by several methods. J For Res 18, 345–352 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-012-0347-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-012-0347-0