Volumetric growth of a new thinning methodology in Nothofagus forests under forest management in Southern Patagonia

LENCINAS, MARÍA V.; MARTÍNEZ PASTUR, GUILLERMO; CELLINI, JUAN M.; SOLER, ROSINA MATILDE

Bucarest

Congreso; Forest Science for a Sustainable Forestry and Human Wellbeing in a Changing World? INCDS ?Marin Drăcea? 85 Years of Activity Centenary of The Great Union in 1918; 2019

The forests of Nothofagus form the entire timber resource for the sawmills in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Most of the studies on growth in forests of Nothofagus pumilio (lenga) in the region have focused on mature forests, being scarce in harvest forests and even less after the application of intermediate treatments. The establishment of permanent plots allows to know the evolution and response of trees to silvicultural interventions (e.g., growth and mortality) that affect their forest structure. The objectives of this work were to determine the differences in forest structure and growth of a young stand of N. pumilio in the Aguas Blancas experimental plot. The study forest was installed in 1967 and a thinning was carried out in 1985 using 2m width strips alternating crossed transversely (checkerboard), and later in 1999 a selective thinning was performed. In this work three situations were compared: control thinning (CT, only thinning in 1985 n = 15432 ind / ha DBH = 4.2 cm), strong thinning (STT, thinned in 1985 and 1999 n = 2933 ind / ha DBH = 6.8 cm) and soft thinning (ST, in 1985 and 1999 n = 6141 ind / has DBH = 6.9 cm) during the period 1999 - 2010. Simple and multiple ANOVAS were performed, and the means were separated by the Tukey test (p