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Effect of sex ratio, habitat factors and neighborhood competition on stem growth in the dioecious tree Fraxinus mandshurica

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Ecological Research

Abstract

Growth rates of male and female trees are often different in a dioecious species. In this study, we analyzed sex ratios and the effect of gender, neighborhood competition and habitat factors on the stem growth of dioecious Fraxinus mandshurica trees in a secondary conifer and broad-leaved mixed forest in the Changbai Mountains of northeastern China. The sex ratio in the 5.2-ha study area does not deviate significantly from the expected 1:1 ratio, except for trees in the large diameter classes. For dbh >40 cm, the sex ratio is male-biased. This result suggests that males have a faster rate of stem growth than females, which is usually explained by the higher cost of reproduction in the fruit-bearing females. An analysis of the dbh distributions of two successive measurements showed that the rate of stem growth of the (27) females drops off with increasing dbh and remains below that of the (35) males. A causal model was used to analyze factors affecting the rate of stem growth, showing that these rates are affected significantly and positively by soil moisture and tree size in both genders and that within-gender competition is mainly for nitrogen. Our study suggests that neighborhood competition does not affect stem growth significantly, which is a rather surprising result.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by the 12th Five-Year National Science and Technology plan of China (2012BAC01B03), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31200315), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (NCET-12-0781) and the Program of the Co-Construction with Beijing Municipal Government of China (2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Forest Resources and Ecosystem Processes of Beijing, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xinna Zhang & Chunyu Zhang

  2. Forest College in Beijing Forestry University, No.35 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Xiuhai Zhao

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  1. Xinna Zhang
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  2. Chunyu Zhang
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  3. Xiuhai Zhao
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Correspondence to Xiuhai Zhao.

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Zhang, X., Zhang, C. & Zhao, X. Effect of sex ratio, habitat factors and neighborhood competition on stem growth in the dioecious tree Fraxinus mandshurica . Ecol Res 29, 309–317 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-013-1125-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-013-1125-y

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