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Alley Coppice-A New System with Ancient Roots Christopher D Alley coppice-a new system with ancient roots Christopher D. Morhart, Gerry C. Douglas, Christian Dupraz, Anil R. Graves, Michael Nahm, Pierluigi Paris, Udo H Sauter, Jonathan Sheppard, Heinrich Spiecker To cite this version: Christopher D. Morhart, Gerry C. Douglas, Christian Dupraz, Anil R. Graves, Michael Nahm, et al.. Alley coppice-a new system with ancient roots. Annals of Forest Science, Springer Nature (since 2011)/EDP Science (until 2010), 2014, 2 (71), pp.527 - 542. 10.1007/s13595-014-0373-5. hal-01102615 HAL Id: hal-01102615 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01102615 Submitted on 13 Jan 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License Annals of Forest Science (2014) 71:527–542 DOI 10.1007/s13595-014-0373-5 REVIEW PAPER Alley coppice—a new system with ancient roots Christopher D. Morhart & Gerry C. Douglas & Christian Dupraz & Anil R. Graves & Michael Nahm & Pierluigi Paris & Udo H. Sauter & Jonathan Sheppard & Heinrich Spiecker Received: 28 October 2013 /Accepted: 25 March 2014 /Published online: 6 May 2014 # The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract & Methods Based on a comprehensive literature review, we & Context Current production from natural forests will not compare the advantages and disadvantages of the alley cop- satisfy future world demand for timber and fuel wood, and pice system and contrast the features with well-known new land management options are required. existing or past systems of biomass and wood production. & Aims We explore an innovative production system that & Results We describe and discuss the basic aspects of alley combines the production of short rotation coppice in wide coppice, its design and dynamics, the processes of competi- alleys with the production of high-value trees on narrow strips tion and facilitation, issues of ecology, and areas that are open of land; it is an alternative form of alley cropping which we for future research. propose to call ‘alley coppice’. The aim is to describe this & Conclusion Based on existing knowledge, a solid founda- alley coppice system and to illustrate its potential for produc- tion for the implementation of alley coppice on suitable land is ing two diverse products, namely high-value timber and ener- presented, and the high potential of this system could be gy wood on the same land unit. shown. Handling Editor: Douglass Jacobs Contribution of the co-authors Christopher D. Morhart: designing the experiment, writing the paper and supervising the work. Anil R. Graves: designing the experiment and writing the paper. Gerry C. Douglas: designing the experiment and writing the paper. Christian Dupraz: designing the experiment and writing the paper. Michael Nahm: designing the experiment, writing the paper and coordinating the research project. Pierluigi Paris: designing the experiment and writing the paper. Udo H. Sauter: designing the experiment and coordinating the research project. Jonathan Sheppard: writing the paper. Heinrich Spiecker: designing the experiment and writing the paper. C. D. Morhart (*) : J. Sheppard : H. Spiecker A. R. Graves Chair of Forest Growth, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Centre for Environmental Risks and Futures, Cranfield University, 79085 Freiburg, Germany Bedfordshire, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK e-mail: [email protected] M. Nahm : U. H. Sauter G. C. Douglas Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA), Wonnhaldestr. Teagasc—Agriculture and Food Development Authority, 4, 79100 Freiburg, Germany Kinsealy Research Centre, Malahide Rd., Dublin 17, Ireland P. Paris C. Dupraz Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Istituto di Biologia Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Agroambientale e Forestale, Via G. Marconi, 2, 05010 Porano (TR), 2, Place Viala, 34060 Montpellier, France Italy 528 C.D. Morhart et al. Keywords High-value timber production . Short-rotation countries such as black alder (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.) coppice . Alley cropping . Agroforestry . Coppice with and hybrid poplar ‘Roxbury’ (Populus nigra L. × Populus standards . Biodiversity . Biomass . SRC trichocarpa Torr. and Gray) in Canada (Côté and Camiré 1987), and wild cherry (Prunus avium L.) and other broad- leaves in Chile (Loewe et al. 2013). 1 Introduction Mixed plantations offer a variety of multiple benefits, both at productive and environmental levels. There can be a signif- It is predicted that by the middle of the twenty-first century, icant yield increment at stand level, with overall productivity the greatest proportion of human wood consumption will being dramatically increased in mixed designs in comparison come from planted forests, most of them intensively managed with monocultures; this is highlighted in the case of eucalypts (Sedjo 2001). It has been shown that the natural forests of the in mixtures with nitrogen-fixing tree species such as world do not have the capacity to sustainably meet the current A. mearnsii and A. falcataria (DeBell et al. 1997; Forrester demand for timber and for fuel wood (Fenning and et al. 2005). However, contrasting negative results might also Gershenzon 2002). Additionally, in recent decades, the inter- be obtained, such as in the case of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus est in renewable energy has grown, and thousands of hectares robusta Sm.) with Casuarina equisetifolia L. or with of short-rotation coppice (SRC) have been planted worldwide Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit (Parrotta 1999). to satisfy biomass requirements (Fiala and Bacenetti 2012; Another important productive advantage of mixed planta- Schweier and Becker 2012). At the same time, the demand for tions is improved rates of individual tree growth and stem high-quality timber, such as common ash (Fraxinus excelsior quality. These advantages are extremely important when pro- L.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus L.), has outstripped ducing high-quality timber. Many broadleaves have poor api- supply and needs to be increased (Becker and Klädtke 2009). cal dominance, and mixed plantations can significantly im- An innovative approach to boost capacity is to combine the prove stem straightness due to canopy stratification, which production of SRC and valuable timber trees on the same land results in modulated light competition, suppressing epicormic unit so as to capture all available light more efficiently. Much branches and enhancing branching habit (Mohni et al. 2009; has been written about the management and environmental Loewe et al. 2013). These positive interactions on stem form effects of SRC and agroforestry as separate land management are crucial, especially for timber species for which genetically systems. However, the combined approach of alley coppice improved material is not yet available, due to their long has so far received much less attention both in theory and in breeding cycles or to difficulties in vegetative propagation. practice (Unseld 2007; 2009; Clinch et al. 2009; Morhart et al. The risk of pest damage (fungi, bacteria and insects) can 2010; Cardinael et al. 2012). Such a combined production have significant productive and environmental consequences system has similarities with several systems which are well which affect the financial success of forest plantations. Mixing known in conventional forestry (mixed plantations and different species in plantation stands reduces pest risk by coppice-with-standards), in biomass forestry (SRC) and in enhancing genetic diversity at stand level. However, this agroforestry (alley cropping). We discuss the main features aspect of mixed stands is particularly difficult to study, be- of these known systems separately, and we evaluate the char- cause pest damage can happen episodically and be affected by acteristics which may apply in a system of alley coppice. the vegetation structure at landscape level. Loewe et al. (2013) have reported contrasting results for the same mixed planta- 1.1 Mixed plantations tion design in different locations of the same region. Two mechanisms are involved in reducing pest risk in mixed Forest plantations respond more quickly and efficiently to stands: the dilution of the host concentration for a pest organ- management inputs in comparison to traditionally managed ism and habitat diversification which allows greater popula- forest stands (West 2006). However, forest plantations can be tions of natural enemies of pests to be supported (Watt 1992). characterised by significant biological and economic risks, Therefore, the habitat diversification provided by mixed spe- especially when establishing monocultures, with uniform ge- cies plantations creates important environmental services for netic composition at stand and/or landscape level. To mitigate biodiversity conservation, and is especially important for the these risks, the mixing of different tree species in plantation restoration of degraded lands. Mixed plantations, with simul- stands is a beneficial alternative to a monoculture planting taneous
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