Characteristics of coarse woody debris in successional stages of natural beech (Fagus orientalis) forests of Northern Iran

K. Sefidi and M. R. Marvie Mohadjer
Additional contact information
K. Sefidi: Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
M. R. Marvie Mohadjer: Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Journal of Forest Science, 2010, vol. 56, issue 1, 7-17

Abstract: Coarse woody debris (CWD) is an important structural and functional component in forests in Northern Iran. In this study we determine the temporal patterns of CWD in Kheyroud Forests by examining the CWD volume in different decay classes and size classes along a chronosequence of secondary forest succession. The volume of CWD followed the general "U-shaped" temporal trend: the highest in the late successional forest (51.25 m3.ha-1), lowest in the middle successional forest (25.95 m3.ha-1) and intermediate in the early successional forest (37.05 m3.ha-1). The late successional forest had a larger amount of logs, snags and stumps than the other two forests. In contrast, the snag volume did not differ between the late and middle successional forest. CWD in decay classes III and V was greater in the late successional forest than that in the other two forests, while CWD in decay classes II and I did not differ among the three successional forests. CWD in class II and I was significantly higher in the early successional forest than that in the middle successional forest. In the early and middle successional forests, CWD in early decay class was dominated by Carpinus betulus L. followed by Fagus orientalis Lipsky. In the late successional forest, CWD in early decay class was dominated by Fagus orientalis while CWD in the late decay class was dominated by Carpinus betulus. While forest succession had a large influence on the amount of CWD in different decay classes, it had no effect on CWD distribution among the different size classes. Our results suggest that both anthropogenic and natural disturbances have had a long-term effect on the distribution of CWD among three forests.

Keywords: coarse woody debris; Fagus orientalis Lipsky; forest succession; natural beech forest; Northern Iran (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/113/2008-JFS.html (text/html)
http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/113/2008-JFS.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:56:y:2010:i:1:id:113-2008-jfs

DOI: 10.17221/113/2008-JFS

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Forest Science is currently edited by Mgr. Ilona Procházková

More articles in Journal of Forest Science from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().