Production losses due to a summer frost in a Salix viminalis short‐rotation forest in southern Sweden

Abstract

The effect of a single night frost during late spring on the current year production of two clones of Salix viminalis was determined in two monoclonal stands that displayed a gradient from virtually undamaged plants, shielded from outgoing radiation by a neighbouring spruce forest, to heavily damaged plants in the unshielded parts. Compared with the undamaged stand parts, frost caused production losses of 47% and 60% in the two clones during the first year of the second cutting cycle. The clone‐specific allometric relationship between shoot dry weight and diameter was changed by the frost in one clone, showing lower shoot weights in damaged shoots compared with undamaged shoots of the same diameter. In the other clone, allometric relations were not affected by the frost. The relative variation in weight between the stools did not differ systematically with frost damage intensity, and therefore it could not be concluded that frost in monoclonal stands would enforce a competitive hierarchy. It was inferred that the single night frost indirectly can have a negative effect on the production of the stands during the years to come.