Look for lifespans of all branches orders for a coniferous tree
For consultations and for possible collaboration I am looking for botanists
or/and foresters willing and able to work with coniferous trees (eg spruce,
Araucaria heterophylla, other species), in particular, to determine the
lifespans of all branches orders necessary for the development and
verification of models of the dynamics of the system of branches. (See
papers about the model: Galitskii V.V. Biomass Dynamics of HigherOrder
Tree Branches: An Analysis of the Model. Biology Bulletin Reviews, 2013,
Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 412-421; Galitskii V.V. Journal of General Biology,
2012, Vol. 73, No. 7, pp. 442-452, in Russian. PDF-files are available).
The data needed to model have to be obtained on a quite normal trees,
preferably free (open) growing. Data on the branches of all orders must
be for a single tree and a skeleton (of the 1st order) branch. Spruce
near Moscow has lifetimes of branches (4 orders): 1st order - 31, 2nd -
15, 3rd - 11, 4th - 7 years (Tsel'niker, Lesovedenie, 1994, No. 4, 35 -
44). Lifespans are reckoned from the originating moment of the
corresponding inter-verticil section of the stem. Thus the own lifespans
of branches are 30, 13, 8, 3 years. Defining lifespan of branches to
within about one year is not difficult. More precise estimates apparently
require special techniques.
It is interesting to note that these four numbers and the model yielded a
lot of information about dynamics of distribution of green biomass along
height and about the mechanisms of formation of real spruce crowns.
For example, a real spruce crown (with branches of 4 orders) is not
possible without model accounting the effect of the initial growth inhibition
observed in nature. The real lifespan of spruce branches can not be
obtained without including an additional submodel of inter-verticil
branches which are observed in reality.