Evaluation of the competitive environment for white pine (Pinus strobus L.) seedlings planted on prescribed burn sites in the southern Appalachians. Elliott, K. Forest Science, 1995.
Evaluation of the competitive environment for white pine (Pinus strobus L.) seedlings planted on prescribed burn sites in the southern Appalachians. [pdf]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
We evaluated the competitive environment around planted white pine (Pinus strobus L.) seedlings and monitored the response of seedling growth to competition from naturally regenerating herbaceous and woody species for 2 yr after prescribed burning. We evaluated the ability of distance-independent and distance-dependent competition indices to predict resource availability, determined if white pine seedlings responded to resource reduction by competitors, and identified species-specific contributions to the competitive environment through canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Distance-independent measures of competition were not as well correlated with pine seedling growth as were distance-dependent measures. In 1991, competition was less important in 1991 than in 1992, and ordinating the species with CCA failed to improve the predictability of the competitive environment. By 1992, competition became more important, and individual species had differing effects on pine growth; we found that light was the most important resource limiting diameter growth and that the tall tree species were responsible for reduced light availability to pine seedlings.

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