Mortality reduces overyielding in mixed Scots pine and European beech stands along a precipitation gradient in Europe

In the unthinned triplets of monospecific and mixed stands of Scots pine and European beech throughout Europe, we found that (a) gross stem volume growth was higher in mixed compared to monospecific stands. Nonetheless, net stem volume growth hardly differed, (b) stand density was higher in mixed stands, but the alien-thinning accelerated, (c) gross-overyielding increased in mixed stands with water supply, net-overyielding decreased. Thus, the stem volume dropout fraction (hatched) was higher on moist sites (for explanation of technical terms see Box 1)