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Physiological response to pruning severity in Eucalyptus regnans plantations

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Abstract

The photosynthetic response to pruning was measured in two Eucalyptus regnans stands, aged 2 and 3 years, located in areas of high productivity on the coast of the province of Arauco, Chile. Variables such as rates of CO2 assimilation and stomatal conductance were measured in three ages of foliage on trees with different pruning severity treatments, which corresponded to the removal of 0 % (control), 30, 50 and 70 % of live crown length. The 2-year-old stand measurements were performed at the time of pruning and 6, 10, 14 and 18 weeks later, and the 3-year stand, 5, 9, 18 and 28 weeks after pruning. In both trials, significant differences were found between the foliage ages for all instances of measurement showing the mature foliage the highest values up to 30 % higher than old foliage. There were also significant differences between pruning severity treatments in both trials in which, in general, the highest values of CO2 assimilation were observed among the highest pruning severity treatments with values up to 40 % higher than the unpruned trees.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable help of “Forestry Tasmania” for the loan of equipment CIRAS, which allowed to make the measurements for this study. Also wish to acknowledge the contribution of the company “Regnans Ltda.” to allow the installation of the trials on their properties.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Magdalena Lisboa, Eduardo Acuña, Jorge Cancino & Fernando Muñoz

  2. Escuela Politécnica Superior de Lugo, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain

    Fernando Chao & Roque Rodríguez

  3. Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Production Forestry and School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-55, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Peter Volker

Authors
  1. Magdalena Lisboa
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  2. Eduardo Acuña
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  3. Jorge Cancino
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  4. Fernando Chao
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  5. Fernando Muñoz
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  6. Roque Rodríguez
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  7. Peter Volker
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Correspondence to Magdalena Lisboa.

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Lisboa, M., Acuña, E., Cancino, J. et al. Physiological response to pruning severity in Eucalyptus regnans plantations. New Forests 45, 753–764 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-014-9434-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-014-9434-8

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