Site information

See documents in Zenodo:

Site description and pre-thinning forest inventory and growth data

Thinning description and carbon stock data

The "core" of the SMEAR II forest stand was established by sowing for pine after clearcut and prescribed burning in 1962. This stand is surrounded by pine-dominated coniferous stands established in 1960's . All these form the primary research stand that extends 150-300 m from the mast. There was additional planting of pine in 1967, probably due to poor or spatially uneven regeneration. In the late 1960's the density of pine was probably in the order of 2500/ha. The early history of other tree species (spruce and deciduous trees) is unknown, they were naturally regenerated.

Next silvicultural measure was thinning of the northern part of the stand between 1991 and 1995. In February-March 2002 approximately half of the study stand was thinned, see Vesala et al. (2006) for details. In 2020 the whole stand, except control area SE of the mast, was thinned.

Soil properties

The soil is sandy loam, in most places <1 m thick.

Soil C and N in humus and uppermost 50 cm of mineral soil in the mini-catchment in 1996:

C 6.44 kg/m2

N 0.22 kg/m2

Soil C and N in humus layer and the uppermost 40 cm of mineral soil in Aug 2003, sampling location?

C 5.62 kg/m2

N 0.17 kg/m2

The differences mostly originate in

• sampling uncertainty due to different sampling locations
• different ways to correct for stoniness
• to small extent the additional 10 cm sampling depth in 1996

Forest management history

SMEAR II stand (4) and the adjacent stands have different management histories