Monocultures or mixed species? Surprising research shows how forests cope with drought - University of Stirling
Monocultures of some of the UK’s most economically important conifers may be more resilient to spring drought than mixed species forests, new research has shown.
Although mixed-species forests can be more productive and provide a wider range of social, environmental and economic benefits than those containing a single species, they may not be as resilient to drought, the University of Stirling researchers found.
Using a long-term experimental forest in Ardross, near Inverness in Scotland, they measured the impact of a spring drought in 2012 on monocultures of two species - Sitka spruce and Scots pine - compared to mixtures of the same two species growing together in different proportions.
Scots pine and Sitka spruce are two of the most economically important timber species in the UK, collectively making up 68% of all the UK’s coniferous forest area, with Sitka spruce alone comprising 51%.
PhD researcher Tom Ovenden, of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, who led the study, said: “As expected, we found evidence that Scots pine was more resistant to drought than Sitka spruce. However, to our surprise, monocultures of both species appeared to be more resilient to spring drought than any of the mixtures of the two species that we considered.
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Posted On: 09/08/2022