Spacing and Age Effects on Biomass Production in Red Pine Plantations

Abstract

Data and wood samples were collected from 155 trees in 16 high-survival, unthinned plantations of red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) near Chalk River, Ontario, aged 27 to 54 years, with initial spacings of from 1.52 × 1.52 m to 4.27 × 4.27 m. Following standard weighing and drying procedures, ovendry mass values of the whole tree and or their individual components were calculated, and regressions developed to relate mass values to stem dimensions of diameter breast height (d) and total height (h), and to determine what effects the initial spacing and stand age had on those relations. Single-tree equations based simply on d and h gave satisfactory mass estimates only for the whole tree and for the component stem bark. For other components the addition of spacing and age showed successive improvements in the estimates over those provided by d 2 h alone.