Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Wind is one of the most common natural disturbances in boreal forests, creating gaps in the forest, which are important for natural regeneration- creating suitable light, space and nutrient availability. Common regeneration practice after a wind throw is soil scarification and planting but in forest set-asides it is not applicable in Estonia. These areas are left to naturally regenerate. In this study an in-depth spatial pattern research was made in Halliku plot 3 to investigate the effect of dead wood on regeneration. If microsite type affects species establishment was investigated using data from Eisma and Halliku and finally the relationship between regeneration density and gap size was investigated in three storm areas in Estonia: Halliku (4 plots), Tudu (4 plots) and Eisma (4 plots).

The results showed that deadwood affected regeneration - it showed clustered pattern, and the spatial distribution of regeneration was significantly different from normal distribution. Furthermore this study’s results showed statistically significant effect of microsite on species establishment. Microsite and species had a significant effect on seedlings density per m2. The analyse between gap size showed no statistically significant effect on regeneration density.

Further studies with increased study areas and continous data collection are needed to inevestigate gap size influence on regeneration density.