Growth Patterns, Phloem Nutrient Contents and Root Characteristics of Beech (Fagus Sylv.l.) on Soils of Different Reaction

Abstract

A pilot study was run in 6 older beech stands in Lower Franconia growing either on Terrae fuscae and Parabraunerde soils of high pH and rich in bases (A) or on acid to podzolic brown forest soils (B). Intensive growth analyses of 2–4 representative trees per stand revealed different levels, but similar time patterns of diameter and volume increment. The extremely dry early summer season of 1976 depressed growth on both acid and highly buffered soils. Beech phloem sampled at breastheight contained more K, Mn, Zn and Al, but less Ca on (B) than on (A), whereas contents of N, P, Mg and Cu were similar. Density of living roots of selected trees in the topsoil (0–50 cm) attained the same order of magnitude on both groups of substrata; but less roots were detected In the subsoil of acid sites. Living fine roots of trees on (A) showed evidence of containing more Ca and less Mn than trees on (B); N, P, K, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn and Al however varied on similar levels.

2 selected trees growing on a podzolic soil and suffering from bark necrosis exhibited, as compared with unaffected neighbours, similar development of diameters from 1940–75 and the same abrupt decrease of radial increment in 1976, but no subsequent regeneration. They had exceptionally high N, P and Zn, but very low K contents in the phloem. The root system of one of those trees was strikingly shallow and covered by Armillaria mellea rhizoids. The fine roots didn’t differ in element contents from those of adjoining healthy trees.