Canadian Forest Service Publications
Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) biomass production on a former coal mine site: positive effects of coppicing on rapid recovery of growth and yield. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 2019 49(9): 1060-1068 Mosseler, A.; Major,J.E.; and McPhee, D.
Year: 2019
Issued by: Atlantic Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 39945
Language: English
Availability: PDF (download)
Available from the Journal's Web site. †
DOI: 10.1139/cjfr-2019-0062
† This site may require a fee
Abstract
Ten-year-old bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa Michx.) saplings established on the exposed, infertile, treeless barrens of a former coal mine site in New Brunswick, Canada, were harvested to assess the effects of subsequent coppicing on regrowth parameters and biomass production. Two years after harvesting, coppice height growth exceeded that of the original 10-year-old saplings by 20%. Mean stem numbers were 1.2 and 6.7 for 10-year-old and coppiced trees, respectively. Mean dry mass recovered after 2 years with 214, 112, and 207 g for 10-year-old saplings and the 1- and 2-year-old coppices, respectively. Site quality of the broken shale rock overburden was similar across four of the five sites, with the exception that one site had twice the soil nitrogen (N) at 0.123% than the other four site types, which had an average of 0.064% N. This high N site had 2.3-fold the productivity of the mean for the other four sites. Mean coppice stem height showed the strongest predictive relationship to total coppice dry mass when compared with the greatest stem height, greatest or mean stem basal diameter, or coppice stem number. The most dramatic result of this bur oak coppicing experiment was the rapid recovery of height growth, biomass production, and observable stem quality within coppices over the 2-year period following harvesting of the original, 10-year-old saplings
Plain Language Summary
Coppicing appears to be an effective way to rejuvenate poorly formed, slow-growing stems on highly disturbed, infertile, exposed areas such as former mine sites. Coppicing may also be a pragmatic silvicultural alternative for maintaining species such as oaks in areas where they may currently be in decline globally due to changing environmental conditions such as drought. If drought becomes a major factor in oak decline, then coppicing in combination with shorter harvest cycles/rotations may be an effective way to maintain oak populations in drought-prone areas because it takes advantage of an established root system, as opposed to re-establishing species by planting seedlings that may be more susceptible to drought, especially shortly after planting. In our study, 10-year-old bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa Michx.) saplings established on a former coal mine site in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada were harvested to assess the effects of subsequent coppicing on regrowth parameters and biomass production. Two years after harvesting, coppice height growth exceeded that of the original 10-year-old saplings by 20%. Site quality of the broken shale rock overburden was similar across four of the five sites with the exception that one site had twice the nitrogen (N) of the other four sites. This high N site had 2.3x the productivity of the mean for the other four sites. The most dramatic result of this bur oak coppicing experiment was the rapid recovery of height growth, biomass production, and observable stem quality within coppices over the 2-year period following harvesting of the original, 10-year-old saplings.