WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development
Print ISSN: 1790-5079, E-ISSN: 2224-3496
Volume 13, 2017
Environmental Conditions and Oak Barrels Timber Quality: Which is the Influence in the Quercus Petraea Matts. Liebl. Forests in the Iberian Peninsula?
Authors: ,
Abstract: The autoecology of the oak Quercus petraea in the northwest Iberian Peninsula was investigated in the present study by applying the methodology developed in previous studies of other species of the genus Quercus. For this, the distribution of the species was firstly determined so that a minimum number of representative species could be selected. A total of 52 plots were chosen and in each one, 41 biotype parameters were established (6 physiographic, 17 climatic and 18 edaphic), along with 19 dendrometric and silvicultural parameters. The study of the variability of these parameters allowed description of both central and marginal physiographic-climatic and edaphic habitats of the sessile oak (Q. petraea) in the northwest Iberian Peninsula and an assessment of the effect of environmental factors on its present silvicultural status. The species is indifferent to the type of substrate, tolerates and even prefers lime soils. Within the area of study, sessile oak forests occur at altitudes of between 540 to 1400 m, a range that corresponds to a difference in mean annual temperature of more than 6ºC; however, the main climatic feature that defines the stands under study is the abundance of precipitations, with a annual mean precipitation of 1589.8 mm and a summer mean precipitation of 303.6 mm. The species is less resistant to low temperatures than the pedunculate oak (Q. robur) and generally shows a longer growth period.
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Pages: 216-224
WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1790-5079 / 2224-3496, Volume 13, 2017, Art. #24