Productivity of Scandinavian forests in relation to changes in management and environment.

Abstract

The concept of limiting factors goes back to the work of Liebig in the 1840s, where he stated that plant growth was limited by the nutrient element in minimum, that is the element in least supply as compared with the demand of the plant. Liebig's way of looking upon plant growth relations was a very simplified one, and it has later been found that very often more than one factor limits plant growth and that the various limiting factors may interact in different ways. Often the interaction between growth factors can be expressed as multiplicative effects with positive interactions between factors. However, there are also cases described where one factor may act as a substitute for another factor to a larger or smaller extent.