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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is a promising species for high quality wood production. In Portugal, until the nineties the wild cherry was practically ignored in afforestations. After 1992, with the EU set-aside policies, the afforestation area with cherry was greatly increased due to the EU subventions. Actually, the oldest stands, mostly pure, are about fifteen years old and many of them are experiencing a high rate of mortality. A field trial was established in the northeast of Portugal (year 2000) to evaluate the behaviour of several broadleaves, including cherry, in mixed plantations with a fixing nitrogen species Robinea psedoacacia. This trial includes four broadleaves species with ten treatments and three replications. In this analysis we consider only the treatments were cherry is present (T2 – Pure cherry, T4 – Pure robinea, T6 – a line of cherry x a line of robinea, T9 – cherry x robinea in the line). Logistic regression was used to analyse the cherry’s survival. The analysis of maximum likelihood estimates pointed out that the cherry was associated to a high surviving probability when it was consociated with robinea, but the pure cherry treatment analysis was not conclusive (P>0.05). A HSD Tukey test was used to compare the height growth of cherry in the different treatments. It was observed that T2 did not differ from T9 concerning the height growth of cherry (P>0.05) but it differed between T2 - T6 and T6 – T9. The mean height of cherry was highest in the T6 followed by the T9. The apparent vigour of the cherry was superior when consociated with robinea, seeming that its presence directly benefits the objective species. The ecological principle of facilitation is evident at the level of the stand environment created by the robinia for the other species. The contribution of robinea for nitrogen fixation is being studied in a parallel research.
Description
Keywords
Prunus avium Fixing nitrogen species
Citation
Patrício, Maria do Sameiro; Nunes, Luis Filipe; Monteiro, Maria do Loreto; Lopes, Domingos (2008). Mixed plantations: a silvicultural option for cherry high quality wood production. In International Conference on Growing Valuable Broadleaved Tree Species. Freiburg