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Effects of harvesting intensity and site conditions on biomass production of northern Patagonia shrublands

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Abstract

Forest biomass with energy purpose is gaining importance. Although there is a lot of information about afforestation for energy purpose, native resource management for biofuel production is a less studied topic. Consequently, generating information about management of local forest types that have potential for providing biomass for energy, such as resprouting shrublands, becomes a priority objective. We evaluated the effects of harvesting intensity on coppice growth in three resprouting shrublands with contrasting site conditions in northern Patagonia (Argentina). At each site, three harvesting treatments in strips of increasing width were randomly assigned to six permanent plots of 31.5 × 45 m during 2013–2014. Four years after, we measured resprouts (number and size of stems) of the five native dominant species. We found that almost all species responded to harvesting intensity by enhancing the coppice growth rates. Nonetheless, species showed different strategies for resource obtention. When analyzing at the community level, the response to harvesting intensity was consistent among the hillside sites, but conservative in the valley bottom site with the worst environmental conditions. Due to the high response of these species to harvesting intensity, we conclude that intense shrubland management for biomass commercialization could be a viable option depending on site conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the private forest owners for allowing us to install the experiments in their fields. We specially thank Y. Cardoso and A. Henry for field assistance at various stages and also, two anonymous reviewers for their comments. The study was funded by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica—Argentina (PICT 2013-1079 and PICT 2016-0305), Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (PI-40-B-399) and a Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas-Argentina scholarship to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Mitre 630, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina

    Matías G. Goldenberg, Facundo J. Oddi, Mariano M. Amoroso & Lucas A. Garibaldi

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina

    Matías G. Goldenberg, Facundo J. Oddi, Mariano M. Amoroso & Lucas A. Garibaldi

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  1. Matías G. Goldenberg
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  2. Facundo J. Oddi
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  3. Mariano M. Amoroso
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  4. Lucas A. Garibaldi
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Correspondence to Matías G. Goldenberg.

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Goldenberg, M.G., Oddi, F.J., Amoroso, M.M. et al. Effects of harvesting intensity and site conditions on biomass production of northern Patagonia shrublands. Eur J Forest Res 139, 881–891 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-020-01292-6

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