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Response of species and stand types to snow/wind damage in a temperate secondary forest, Northeast China

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Abstract

Snow/wind damage is one of the important natural disturbances in forest ecosystems, especially in a montane secondary forest. However, the effects of snow/wind damage remain unclear which affects the management of these forests. Therefore, we investigated the responses of species, individual tree traits and stand structure to snow/wind damage in a montane secondary forest. Results show that, amongst the canopy trees, Betula costata exhibited the most uprooting, bending and overall damage ratio (the number of damaged stems to the total number of stems in a plot); Quercus mongolica showed the highest breakage ratio and Fraxinus mandshurica and Juglans mandshurica the least overall damage ratios. Among the subcanopy trees, Carpinus cordata, Acer mono, Acer tegmentosum and Acer pseudo-sieboldianum showed the least uprooting and breakage, and the most bending damage. A. pseudo-sieboldianum demonstrated the lowest breakage and highest bending damage ratios. These findings indicate that different species have various sensitivities to snow/wind damage. Larger trees (taller, wider crowns) tend to break and become uprooted, while smaller trees are bent or remain undamaged, suggesting that tree characteristics significantly influence the types of damage from snow and wind. Stands of Q. mongolica and B. costata had the highest damage ratios, whereas A. pseudo-sieboldianum had the lowest snapping ratio. In summary, the severity and type of snow/wind damage are related to individual tree attributes and stand-level characteristics. Therefore, selection of suitable species (e.g., shorter, smaller with deep root systems, hard wood, bending resistance and compression resistance) and appropriate thinning are recommended for planting in the montane secondary forests.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Li-ning Song, Dr. Qiao-ling Yan, Dr. Ming-cai Li and Dr. Tao Yan for their helpful suggestions on the earlier versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agronomy college, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, People’s Republic of China

    Xiufen Li, Lei Jin, Limin Liu, Yi Wang & Chengyao Zhu

  2. Qingyuan Forest CERN, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Xiufen Li, Jiaojun Zhu & Jinxin Zhang

  3. Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Jiaojun Zhu & Jinxin Zhang

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  1. Xiufen Li
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Correspondence to Jiaojun Zhu.

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Project funding: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0500302) and the National Nature Scientific Foundation Project of China (31200432).

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Corresponding editor: Yanbo Hu.

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Li, X., Jin, L., Zhu, J. et al. Response of species and stand types to snow/wind damage in a temperate secondary forest, Northeast China. J. For. Res. 29, 395–404 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-017-0446-z

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