Journal of Forest and Environmental Science

Institute of Forest Science, kangwon National University (강원대학교 산림과학연구소)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Spatial Point-pattern Analysis of a Population of Lodgepole Pine

  • Chhin, Sophan (West Virginia University, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources) ;
  • Huang, Shongming (Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Forest Management Branch)
  • Received : 2018.03.23
  • Accepted : 2018.12.03
  • Published : 2018.12.31
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Spatial point-patterns analyses were conducted to provide insight into the ecological process behind competition and mortality in two lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) stands, one in the Lower Foothills, and the other in the Upper Foothills natural subregions in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada. Spatial statistical tests were applied to live and dead trees and included Clark-Evans nearest neighbor statistic (R), nearest neighbor distribution function (G(r)), and a variant of Ripley's K function (L(r)). In both lodgepole pine plots, the results indicated that there was significant regularity in the spatial point-pattern of the surviving trees which indicates that competition has been a key driver of mortality and forest dynamics in these plots. Dead trees generally showed a clumping pattern in higher density patches. There were also significant bivariate relationships between live and dead trees, but the relationships differed by natural subregion. In the Lower Foothills plot there was significant attraction between live and dead tees which suggests mainly one-sided competition for light. In contrast, in the Upper Foothills plot, there was significant repulsion between live and dead trees which suggests two-sided competition for soil nutrients and soil moisture.

Keywords

References

  1. Aakala T, Fraver S, Palik BJ, D'Amato AW. 2012. Spatially random mortality in old-growth red pine forests of northern Minnesota. Can J For Res 42: 899-907. https://doi.org/10.1139/x2012-044
  2. Alberta Environmental Protection. 1994. Natural regions and subregions of Alberta. Alberta Environmental Protection, Edmonton.
  3. Alberta Land and Forest Service. 1994. Permanent sample plot field procedures manual. Alberta Forest Service, Edmonton, AB.
  4. Baddeley A, Turner R. 2004. The spatstat package: spatial point pattern analysis, model-fitting and simulation. http://www.maths.uawa.edu.au/!adrian/spatstat.html https://rdrr.io/cran/spatstat/. Accecced November 2015.
  5. Clark PJ, Evans FC. 1954. Distance to nearest neighbor as a measure of spatial relationships in populations. Ecology 35: 445-453. https://doi.org/10.2307/1931034
  6. Cressie NAC. 1993. Statistics for spatial data. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
  7. Fraser EC, Lieffers VJ, Landhausser SM. 2006. Carbohydrate transfer through root grafts to support shaded trees. Tree Physiol 26: 1019-1023. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/26.8.1019
  8. Goreaud F, Pelissier R. 2003. Avoiding misinterpretation of biotic interactions with the intertype K12-function: population independence vs. random labelling hypotheses. J Veg Sci 14: 681-692.
  9. Gray L, He F. 2009. Spatial point-pattern analysis for detecting density-dependent competition in a boreal chronosequence of Alberta. For Ecol Manag 259: 98-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.09.048
  10. He F, Duncan RP. 2000. Density-dependent effects on tree survival in an old-growth Douglas fir forest. J Ecol 88: 676-688. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2745.2000.00482.x
  11. Huang S. 2000. A Growth and Yield Projection System for seed-origin natural and regenerated lodgepole pine stands within an ecologically-based, enhanced forest management framework. Land and Forest Service, Report T/484, Edmonton, AB.
  12. Kenkel NC. 1988. Pattern of self-thinning in Jack pine: testing the random mortality hypothesis. Ecology 69: 1017-1024. https://doi.org/10.2307/1941257
  13. Kreutz A, Aakala T, Grenfell R, Kuuluvainen T. 2015. Spatial tree community structure in three stands across a forest succession gradient in northern boreal Fennoscandia. Silva Fennica 49:1279.
  14. Law R, Illian J, Burslem DFRP, Gratzer G, Gunatilleke CVS, Gunatilleke IAUN. 2009. Ecological information from spatial patterns of plants: insights from point process theory. J Ecol 97:616-628. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01510.x
  15. Little LR. 2002. Investigating competitive interactions from spatial patterns of trees in multispecies boreal forests: the random mortality hypothesis revisited. Can J Bot 80: 93-100. https://doi.org/10.1139/b01-141
  16. Lotan JE, Critchfield WB. 1990. Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex. Loud..). In: Silvics of North America (Burns RM, Honkala BH, eds). United States Department of Agriculture, Washington.
  17. Metsaranta JM, Lieffers VJ. 2008. A fifty-year reconstruction of annual changes in the spatial distribution of Pinus banksiana stands: does pattern fit competition theory? Plant Ecol 199: 137-152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-008-9419-9
  18. Ripley BD. 1981. Spatial Statistics. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
  19. Silver EJ, Fraver S, D'Amato AW, Aakala T, Palik BJ. 2013. Long-term mortality rates and spatial patterns in an old-growth forest. Can J For Res 43: 809-816. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2013-0139
  20. Venables WN, Smith DM, R Development Core Team. 2004. An introduction to R. Network Theory Limited, Bristol.