Long-term edge effects on the growth of trees planted in group-selection openings

A group selection system may be a suitable forest management option that considers both ecological and economic factors. A concern with the group selection system is that the growth of trees planted in group selection openings is affected by their position in the opening. However, the long-term effects of tree position on tree growth beyond the juvenile stage are still unknown. We assessed the long-term effects of group selection on tree growth near the edge of openings using long-term measurement data for a group selection stand of Cryptomeria japonica in Japan. The size of individuals planted within group selection openings in 1966 and 1985 was measured three times at approximate 10-year intervals between 2002 and 2022. The growth of the measured individuals for two consecutive measurement periods was calculated and the relationship with distance from the edge of the openings was analyzed. Structural equation modeling revealed that both diameter and height growth were significantly inhibited near the edge of the openings. However, the effect of growth inhibition near the edge of the openings was mitigated with age. The most important factor in the mitigation of the growth inhibition effect with age was the height of the subject tree. We conclude that, in the long term, the influence of growth inhibition near the edges of the openings is small. Our study demonstrates that the inhibition of height and diameter growth by the residual trees is gradually mitigated. This highlights that long-term monitoring is important to assess the growth of individuals within openings when implementing forest management using group selection systems, as previous studies evaluating the effect of tree position in group selection openings have focused on young or juvenile trees only, which is of limited value when evaluating the overall silvicultural system.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research

• Publication date

  2025-06-10

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1093/forestry/cpaf036
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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