INVESTIGATIONS ON THE CORRELATION PATTERN IN EVEN-AGED STANDS OF LARCH .5. PHENOTYPIC CORRELATIONS BETWEEN NEIGHBORING OBSERVATIONS FOR LARIX-DECIDUA MILL (LARIX-EUROPAEA DC), LARIX-KAEMPFERI (LAMB) CARR (LARIX-LEPTOLEPIS (SIEB ET ZUCC) SIEB EX GORD), AND LARIX X EUROLEPIS HENRY

For a dynamic description of spatial neighbourhood correlation pattern s of stands of larch and an analysis of temporal changes and time tren ds of such patterns during stand development extensive data sets from a field trial (trial no. 1) with 27 entries of Larix decidua MILL. (La rix europaea DC.), Larix kaempferi (LAMB.) CARR. (Larix leptolepis (SI EB. et ZUCC.) SIEB. ex GORD.), and (Larix x eurolepis HENRY have been used. Single tree measurements of this trial were available for 7 stag es of stand development (ages: 11, 13, 18, 19, 42, 49 and 50 years). A dditionally, for a static description of spatial neighbourhood correla tion patterns of stands of larch extensive data sets from 9 field tria ls (trials nos. 2 to 10) with a varying number (8 to 23) of entries ha ve been used which provide an analysis of the correlations between nei ghbours at only one point in time. These trials are slightly different in their ages (7 to II years). Single tree measurements for all 10 tr ials were available for the traits height and diameter at breast heigh t (for the 2 ages 42 and 49 of trial no. I only diameter measurements were available). Additionally, the diameter values are transformed and analysed as individual basal areas. The correlative structure for mea surements of neighbouring individuals for these trials with regular sq uare spacings (5 m x 5 m for trial no. 1 and 1.5 m x 1.5 m for trials nos. 2 to 10) has been described by 12 different correlation coefficie nts. These coefficients are defined by considering quite different spa tial configurations of competitive neighbourhoods. In these procedures and analyses the diagonally located neighbours of a subject tree and its missing neighbours too are explicitly considered. The question of this paper is: Are there significant differences among the spatial nei ghbourhood correlation patterns of the three groups of entries: Larix decidua Mill., Larix haempferi (LAMB.) CARR., and Larix x eurolepis HE NRY? Generally valid relationships of consistent differences between c ertain groups have not been observed - neither for single traits nor f or single trials or ages, nor for single spatial neighbourhood correla tion coefficients. The very few situations with existing significant d ifferences between groups are distributed over the entire scheme of al l possible comparisons without any recognizable regularities. The tria ls nos. 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10 exhibit even no significant difference. Ther efore, it can be concluded that the three groups of entries are not si gnificantly different in their spatial neighbourhood correlation patte rns.