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Effect of thinning intensity on tree growth and temporal variation of seed and cone production in a Pinus koraiensis plantation

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Abstract

Thinning of Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc.) is used to facilitate timber and cone production. The present study in Northeast China investigated the effects of thinning intensity on individual tree growth, temporal variation in cone yield, and seed quality in Korean pine plantation. In 2005, five thinning intensity levels (none, extreme, heavy, moderate and light) were set in 15 permanent plots in a 32-year-old Korean pine plantation at Mengjiagang Forest Farm, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province. We recorded tree growth and seed cone production from 2013 to 2016, i.e., from 8 to 11 years after thinning. Except for height growth, thinning increased tree growth (diameter at breast height and crown size) and improved cone yield. The extreme thinning treatment (to 300 trees per hectare) resulted in the largest tree diameter, tree volume, crown size and 4-year cone production per tree. The highest cone yield per tree in the mast year (2014) was observed when stands were thinned to 500 trees per hectare (heavy thinning). Although the best cone and seed quality and the largest cone and seed mass per tree were recorded in the heavily thinned stand, no significant differences were found between heavy and moderate thinning stands (750 trees per hectare). At the stand level, the moderately thinned stand had the highest basal area, stock volume and seed cone production per stand. Our results suggest that thinning to 750 trees per hectare will improve timber and cone productivity in 40-year-old P. koraiensis stands.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate Dr. David South, Emeritus Professor of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, USA, for language revision. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions. We also thank the Mengjiagang Forest Farm for providing the research site and helping our investigation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, People’s Republic of China

    Thanh Tuan Nguyen, Peng Zhang, Muhammad Razaq & Hai-Long Shen

  2. Department of Forestry, Vietnam Forestry University-Second Campus, Okayama, Dongnai, 810000, Vietnam

    Thanh Tuan Nguyen

  3. Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Dinh Tien Tai

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  1. Thanh Tuan Nguyen
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  2. Dinh Tien Tai
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Correspondence to Hai-Long Shen.

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Project Funding: This study is supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFD0600601).

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Corresponding editor: Zhu Hong.

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Nguyen, T.T., Tai, D.T., Zhang, P. et al. Effect of thinning intensity on tree growth and temporal variation of seed and cone production in a Pinus koraiensis plantation. J. For. Res. 30, 835–845 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0690-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0690-x

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