ABSTRACT
This study was conducted in a 27 year Pinus taeda stand in Cambará do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state and aimed to estimate the biomass production, nutrient stock and to evaluate the nutritional impact in different forest harvesting intensities. Biomass was estimated through regression equation adjustments, with the cut of 15 trees distributed in 5 diametric classes. Nutrients stock was obtained through the product between the average content of nutrients in each biomass component and the number of trees per diametric class per hectare. Pinus taeda above ground biomass was estimated in 266.08 Mg ha-1, being 69.1 % of wood, 17.1 of live branches, 6.7 % of bark, 3.8 % of dead branches and 3.4 % of needles. Nutrients stock in biomass (kg ha-1) was estimated in: 511.96 of N, 44.39 of P, 174.27 of K, 310.77 of Ca, 103.80 of Mg, 115.36 of S, 2.94 of B, 0.62 of Cu, 17.34 of Fe, 36.70 of Mn and 4.46 of Zn. Nutrients stock relative distribution in Pinus taeda biomass components showed the following sequence: wood (43.6 %), live branches (24.8 %), needles (19.0 %), bark (8.7 %) and dead branches (3.9 %). Total above ground biomass harvest, when compared to only wood removal, leads to nutrients export increase that can vary from 58.0 % to 127.4 %, depending on the chemical element, while biomass removal increases 40.8 %.
Keywords:
forest harvesting; productivity; nutrient cycling; sustainability