© 1990 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Reconstructed development of stem production and foliage mass and its vertical distribution in Japanese larch
A. Osawa
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Hokkaido Research Center, 1 Hitsujigaoka, Toyohira, Sapporo 062, Japan /
Summary
Hypotheses of independence with time in (1) height growth rate, (2) crown length, (3) total foliage mass, and (4) vertical
profile of foliage mass density within a crown following canopy closure were tested with two codominant trees in a 15-year-old
Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr.) plantation by means of a combined method consisting of detailed stem analysis (to reconstruct development
of stem growth over time), knot dissection (to identify time of branch mortality), and a stem diameter versus cumulative foliage
mass relationship at a given stem location.
I failed to reject all hypotheses at the 5% significance level. All parameters converged to constant values after canopy closure.
Foliage efficiency for stem volume density production also assumed a constant value. Vertical profiles of the foliage mass
density did not change after crown closure; however, the profile for one tree showed a more heterogeneous distribution because
of the presence of large branches. Implications of these results for the profile diagram model of tree growth (Chiba et al.
1988, Osawa et al. 1990) are discussed.
