Plots in Arnoldstein are located at an elevation of 550–650 m, on flat terrain. Arnoldstein has a temperate climate. Mean annual temperature at the nearest meteorological station is 8.2 °C, with a mean monthly temperature of −3.2 °C in January and +18.7 °C in July. Mean annual precipitation
is 1075 mm, of which 564 mm falls from May–September. Plots are located at three different soil types: Fluvisols, heavy textured cambisols derived from moraine material, and leptosols. Each soil type encompasses a variety of age-classes and densities. According to the yield tables of Marschall (1992) mean annual increment at the age of 100 years range from 5 to 17 m3 ha−1 year−1 for Norway spruce and Selleck AZD8055 from 5 to 9 m3 ha−1 year−1 for Scots pine. Plots in Litschau are located at an elevation of 400–600 m. The climate is colder than in Arnoldstein. The mean annual temperature is 7.1 °C. January Sirolimus clinical trial mean is again −3.2 °C but the mean temperature in July is only +16.2 °C. Mean annual precipitation is 707 mm, of which 416 mm falls from May–September. Soils are podzols, gleyic podzols, and mollic and umbric gleysols. According to the yield tables of Marschall (1992) mean annual increment at the age of 100 years range from 5 to
15 m3 ha−1 year−1 for Norway spruce and from 5 to 9 m3 ha−1 year−1 for Scots pine. At plot establishment, all trees above a diameter at breast height (dbh) of 5 cm (Litschau) or 10 cm (Arnoldstein) were individually numbered and tree locations were recorded for each tree. For each tree, dbh, height, and height to the crown base were recorded at the first assessment. Dbh and heights were remeasured after 5 years. Height to the crown base
was remeasured at longer intervals. Stand characteristics of the research plots at the beginning of the simulation runs are given in Table 5. The stands are pure and mixed stands of Norway spruce and Scots pine. Stand age was 10–111 years at the first assessment. learn more Dominant heights ranged from 6.5 to 30 m. A wide range of stand densities was found. The stand density index (Reineke, 1933) ranged from 428 to 1320. To examine trends of age and density, we fit models of the form: equation(1) hd=a0+b0⋅ln(A)+b1⋅SDI equation(2) hd=a0+b0⋅ln(A)+b1⋅BAwhere h/d: height:diameter ratio (m m−1); ln(A): natural logarithm of age (year); SDI: stand density index; BA: basal area (m2 ha−1); a0, b0, b1: estimated parameters. The variation in stand density is considerably higher in Arnoldstein than in Litschau (Table 5). Furthermore, the data in Arnoldstein are free of any trend of density with age. In addition, there is a sufficient variety of densities for all age classes in Arnoldstein. In Litschau, there is a nearly significant trend of density with age (p = 0.0756, R2 = 0.14) and there is little variation within a given age class. This is probably an artifact of a smaller sample size (n = 23 plots). The analysis was restricted to Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).