LTER Zöbelboden, Austria, Tree growth data 1996 - 2019

The stem diameter measurements were done with Dial Dendro (Relaskop-Technik GmbH). The number of dendrometers were for station 300: beech: n=5, spruce n=13; 700: beech: n=12, spruce n=6; 2900: beech: n=5, spruce n=13. The dendrometer measurements were scaled up to the entire stand using tree inventories from the years 2003, 2007, and 2014. During inventories, tree height and diameter at breast height was measured. Missing tree heights for every weekly dendrometer measurement were calculated from stem diameters using linear regression. Stem wood volume (fresh mass) was estimated based on tree species-specific volume equations (Pollanschütz, 1974). The resulting volume was lowered by a shrinking factor to obtain the oven-dry volume (spruce: 0.118, beech: 0.179). Subsequently, conversion factors (spruce: 0.41 t m-3, beech: 0.68 t m-3) were used to convert the corrected volumes to stem wood biomass (as dry weight). The biomass of the branches, needles, and leaves was estimated on the basis of allometric functions for coniferous (Eckmüllner, 2006) and deciduous trees (branches: Ledermann and Neumann, 2006; foliage: Wutzler et al., 2008). Monthy sums were calculated by summing up mean daily measurements derived from the minimum and maximum diameter recorded in each month. We note that Picea abies and Fagus sylvatica are the dominant tree species at all plots but also others exist, particularly at STATION 700 (which is a subplot of IP2), so that we advice using the forest inventory data in data set #link#. For more details see Leitner, S., Dirnböck, T., Kobler, J., Zechmeister-Boltenstern, S. (2020). Legacy effects of drought on nitrate leaching in a temperate mixed forest on karst. Journal of Environmental Management 262, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110338