Species mixing reduces drought susceptibility of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and oak (Quercus robur L., Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) – Site water supply and fertility modify the mixing effect

Steckel, M.;del Río, M.;Heym, M.;Aldea, J.;Pretzsch, H.;et.al.
(2020) Forest Ecology and Management — Vol. 461, p. 117908 (2020)

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Authors
  • Steckel, M.Technical University of Munich, Germany
    Author
  • del Río, M.University of Valladolid, Spain
    Author
  • Heym, M.Technical University of Munich, Germany
    Author
  • Aldea, J.Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, Sweden
    Author
  • Ponette, QuentinUCLouvain
    Author
  • Pretzsch, H.Technical University of Munich, Germany
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Abstract
Tree species mixing has been widely promoted as a promising silvicultural tool for reducing drought stress. However, so far only a limited number of species combinations have been studied in detail, revealing inconsistent results. In this study, we analysed the effect of mixing Scots pine and oak (pedunculate oak and sessile oak) trees on their drought response along a comprehensive ecological gradient across Europe. The objective was to improve our knowledge of general drought response patterns of two fundamental European tree species in mixed versus monospecific stands. We focused on three null hypotheses: (HI) tree drought response does not differ between Scots pine and oak, (HII) tree drought response of Scots pine and oak is not affected by stand composition (mixture versus monoculture) and (HIII) tree drought response of Scots pine and oak in mixtures and monocultures is not modified by tree size or site conditions. To test the hypotheses, we analysed increment cores of Scots pine and oak, sampled in mixed and monospecific stands, covering a wide range of site conditions.
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Steckel, M., del Río, M., Heym, M., Aldea, J., Bielak, K., Brazaitis, G., Černý, J., Coll, L., Collet, C., Ehbrecht, M., Jansons, A., Nothdurft, A., Pach, M., Pardos, M., Ponette, Q., Reventlow, D. O. J., Sitko, R., Svoboda, M., Vallet, P., et al. (2020). Species mixing reduces drought susceptibility of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and oak (Quercus robur L., Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) – Site water supply and fertility modify the mixing effect. Forest Ecology and Management, 461, 117908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2020.117908 (Original work published 2020)