Intensive, site-specific silviculture: Manipulating resource availability at establishment for improved stand productivity. A review of South African research

An important window of opportunity to increase and sustain productivity in short-rotation plantations is the period from felling through re-establishment to canopy closure. This paper explores the effects, interactions and response mechanisms of intensive silvicultural practices on plantation productivity and sustainability, using five South African case studies (a–e). (a) Land preparation trials showed that complete surface cultivation by ploughing had a significant beneficial effect when afforestation is done for the first time in grasslands, improving basal area growth by 11–52% over pitting only. However, similar treatments have not resulted in significant growth responses under re-establishment conditions. (b) Stand growth suppression resulting chiefly from soil compaction during mechanised harvesting operations is strongly related to soil type, soil textural class and residue management options. Volume growth reduction in short-rotation eucalypt crops ranged from 25% on compaction sensitive loamy soils to less than 2% in resistant sandy soils. (c) The response mechanism whereby vegetation management improves stand productivity is a reduction in both inter-specific and intra-genotypic competition for resources, as well as a decrease in stand variability. Operationally, the most important criteria in a vegetation management programme relate to the timing of control operations across diverse site conditions. In local trials, the primary factors controlling the time taken for competition-induced tree growth suppression to occur were related to altitude, slash burning and the interaction between these factors, which facilitated the development of regional vegetation management strategies. (d) Empirical fertilizer trials in short-rotation hardwood stands have shown significant improvements in final productivity (commonly 20–90 m3 ha−1 in eucalypts and 30–50 m3 ha−1 in Acacia), as well as wood density (15–30 kg m−3 for eucalypts) following improvements in early nutrition. Improved nutrition was achieved through fertilization at planting or indirectly through residue management. The response mechanism is primarily due to early canopy development and associated increases in light capture, coupled with a more modest increase in canopy quantum efficiency and above-ground carbon allocation on a dry site. On sites with abundant water supply, increased quantum efficiency is likely to be the dominant response mechanism. (e) A series of operational gains trials tested the interactive effect of genetic tree improvement, site–genotype interaction, stand density and vegetation management + fertilization on eucalypt stand growth across five sites. There were no significant interactions between factors, but importantly, the results were additive, emphasizing the need to optimise each practice in the value chain to achieve maximum productivity.