ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Silvicultural Systems: practice questions

Question 1 · medium

Indian textbooks separate high forest systems by how concentrated regeneration is. Which pair are both systems of concentrated regeneration?

1. Selection and group selection systems
2. Selection and the irregular shelterwood system
3. Clear felling and the uniform shelterwood system
4. Coppice selection and the pollard system

Question 2 · hard

A forest on an 80-year rotation is called even-aged under the textbook rule that the age range should not exceed one quarter of the rotation. What is the largest age difference allowed between its trees?

1. 20 years
2. 8 years
3. 40 years
4. 4 years

Question 3 · hard

Which system starts regeneration fellings in groups inside the stand and along a strip at its edge at the same time, until the two meet?

1. Wedge system
2. Group selection system
3. Coppice selection system
4. Strip-and-group system

Question 4 · medium

In coppice with standards with a coppice rotation of 20 years, standards are retained for three coppice rotations. At which age are the oldest standards felled?

1. 20 years
2. 23 years
3. 60 years
4. 40 years

Question 5 · hard

Why do coppice yields usually decline over many successive rotations?

1. Coppice shoots always become genetically different from the parent and grow more slowly
2. Standards above the underwood double in number at every felling and shade out all shoots
3. The soil becomes waterlogged because coppice transpires far more than any high forest
4. Stools lose vigour and some die with age, and frequent harvests remove nutrients from the site

Question 6 · hard

Which combination most strongly favours the selection system over clear felling?

1. A light-demanding species, flat ground and an objective of cheap mechanised pulpwood
2. A shade-tolerant species, steep erodible slopes and objectives of protection and landscape
3. A coppicing species, flat ground and an objective of fuelwood on a five-year cycle
4. A serotinous pine, flat ground and an objective of even-aged sawlogs after fire

Question 7 · medium

Variable retention harvesting was developed from research on:

1. How nursery seedlings respond to fertiliser and irrigation in container systems before they are planted out on clear fells
2. How forests recover after natural disturbances that leave living and dead structures behind
3. How coppice stools lose vigour over successive short rotations on poor soils
4. How sawmills recover more timber from logs of uniform diameter and taper

Question 8 · medium

How do monocyclic and polycyclic systems in humid tropical forests differ?

1. Monocyclic systems use only coppice; polycyclic systems use only planted seedlings in lines cut through the logged-over residual forest
2. Monocyclic systems are used only in mangroves; polycyclic systems only in dry thorn forests
3. Monocyclic systems harvest once per rotation; polycyclic systems cut selected trees above a diameter limit on a shorter cycle
4. Monocyclic systems fell one tree per hectare; polycyclic systems fell every tree on the coupe

Question 9 · hard

Enrichment planting in tropical forest management means:

1. Adding fertiliser to logged forest so that all remaining trees grow faster
2. Planting a cover crop of legumes under a closed canopy to fix nitrogen
3. Introducing animals that disperse seed of commercial species into the forest to raise the stocking of valuable timber trees
4. Planting valuable species in lines or gaps where natural regeneration of them is poor

Question 10 · medium

Converting selection forest to even-aged clear felling is often restricted mainly because:

1. Selection forests contain no merchantable timber to sell at the conversion
2. Of its effects on protection functions and biodiversity, under law or certification
3. Even-aged forests cannot be regenerated once the selection structure is lost
4. Clear felling equipment cannot operate in any forest that was once selection