Abstract
Context
Old-growth trees play a very important role in the maintenance of biodiversity in forests. However, no clear definition is yet available to help identify them since tree age is usually not recorded in National Forest Inventories.
Aims
To develop and test a new method to identify old-growth trees using a species-specific threshold for tree diameter in National Forest Inventories.
Methods
Different nonlinear mixed models for diameter–age were generated using data from the Spanish Forest Inventory in order to identify the most appropriate one for Aleppo pine in its South-western distribution area. The asymptote of the optimal model indicates the threshold diameter for defining an old-growth tree. Additionally, five site index curves were examined to analyze the influence of site quality on these models.
Results
The Hossfled III mixed model was found to be the most appropriate to fit diameter–age curves for Aleppo pine trees. The overall diameter at breast height threshold for old-growth trees was 40.6 cm, although over a range of sites with increasing site quality, the threshold figure was 36.0, 38.0, 40.4, 43.1, and 46.3 cm, respectively.
Conclusions
This method allows the identification of old-growth trees and therefore of biodiversity hotspots, thus providing decision makers with a useful tool for management purposes.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Roberto Vallejo and Vicente Sandoval of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment for kindly providing access to the full Spanish NFI data sets. We are particularly grateful to Guillermo Gea-Izquierdo, for his help and comments. We also want to express our thanks to the TRAGSA field teams of the National Forest Inventory and to the CIFOR-INIA technicians involved in the tree ring analysis for all their effort. We also thank Adam Collins for his help in editing this paper.
Funding
This research was supported by the AEG-09-007 agreement of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) and the AGL2010-21153.00.01 project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN).
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Handling Editor: Gilbert Aussenac
Contribution of the co-authors
Iciar ALBERDI: Experimental design, data analysis and elaboration of the paper
Isabel CAÑELLAS: Research project coordination, experimental design and work supervision
Laura HERNÁNDEZ: Figures/biodiversity and species ecology related aspects of the project supervision
Sonia CONDÉS: Experimental design, data analysis, work supervision
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Alberdi, I., Cañellas, I., Hernández, L. et al. A new method for the identification of old-growth trees in National Forest Inventories: application to Pinus halepensis Mill. stands in Spain. Annals of Forest Science 70, 277–285 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-012-0261-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-012-0261-9