This paper documents data on standing dead trees (snags) in the pine-spruce (Norway spruce Picea abies, Scots pine Pinus sylvestris) natural stand in Bialowieza National Park (BNP) in northeast Poland. Trophically, this mostly coniferous stand represents one of the poorest habitats of the BNP, and this stand has never been cut. There are few tree species of significance, i.e., Scots pine, Norwa...

Hydraulic impairment due to xylem embolism and carbon starvation are the two proposed mechanisms explaining drought-induced forest dieback and tree death. Here, we evaluate the relative role played by these two mechanisms in the long-term by quantifying wood-anatomical traits (tracheid size and area of parenchyma rays) and estimating the intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) from carbon isotopi...

High-density airborne laser scanner data has been previously shown to provide great opportunities for individual tree detection and measurement of variables characterizing the detected trees. This paper evaluates the effect of laser flight altitude on the tree height estimation at individual tree level in the boreal forest area mainly consisting of Norway spruce, Scots pine and birch. The test ...

High-value trees, such as those located in residential, recreational, or administrative sites, are particularly susceptible to bark beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) attack as a result of increased amounts of stress associated with drought, soil compaction, mechanical injury, or vandalism. Tree losses in these unique environments generally have a substantial impact. The value of th...

The Scots pine is often used in the biomonitoring of forests. Studies on the chemical composition plus variability of its needles morphological structure allow for an assessment of the state of environmental pollution. However, in their natural populations, the response of individual trees to stress differs. This study reports on the influence of long-term soil contamination with trace elements...

Replicated circular openings ranging in size from 0.1 to 1 ha were cleared on a Sierran mixed conifer forest in 1996 at the Blodgett Forest Research Station, California and planted with seedlings of six native species. After 3 years of growth, heights of all trees were measured and analyzed according to species, opening size, and location within the opening. To determine the cause of the edge i...

The time interval between stand-replacing fires can influence patterns of initial postfire succession if the abundance of postfire propagules varies with prefire stand age. We examined the effect of fire interval on initial postfire lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm.) density in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) following the 1988 fires. We asked whether postfire propagule abun...

Pine wilt disease induced by the pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is a great threat to pine forests in Japan. The first occurrence of the disease was reported in Nagasaki, Kyushu. During the 1930s the disease occurrence was extended in 12 prefectures, and in the 1940s the disease was found in 34 prefectures. The annual loss of pine trees increased from 30,000 m(3) to 1.2 million m...

This study provides a preliminary assessment of 4 compartments on the Crossett Experimental Forest (CEF) being restored to old-growth-like conditions. After being partially cleared for agriculture or lumbered in the late 1910s, Compartments 1, 2, 11, and 12 were included in a combination of pulpwood-thinning and uneven-aged cutting-cycle studies for the next 50 y. Today, these compartments are ...

We investigated an old-growth oak-shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) stand of high ecological integrity in east-central Oklahoma located west of the continuous native distribution of shortleaf pine. With the exception of an abundance of shortleaf pine, the basal area (17.2 m/ha), density (559.6 trees/ha), and species composition of this unmanaged stand is similar to other old hardwood forests in t...