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Table I

Description of belowground and aboveground dependent and independent variables determined for each of the 29 plots.

Variable Units Additional remarks
Belowground dependent

Armillaria soil weight g m −3 Mean fresh weight of Armillaria rhizomorphs of 4 soil samples
Armillaria soil length cm m−3 Mean length of Armillaria rhizomorphs of 4 soil samples
Armillaria soil frequency % Percentage of soil samples with Armillaria rhizomorph presence

Aboveground dependent

Armillaria stump colonisation % Percentage of stumps with Armillaria signs
Armillaria dead tree colonisation % Percentage of dead trees with Armillaria signs

Independent

Elevation m Meters above sea level
Slope % Slope percentage, measured with inclinometer
North exposure ° 0° implies north, > 0 and < 0 values, east and west exposure respectively
Soil depth cm One unique observation in the centre of each plot
Shrub cover 0–4 Thresholds of 25% shrub coverage; 0, no shrub coverage
Herbaceous cover 0–4 Thresholds of 25% herbaceous coverage; 0, no herbaceous coverage
Moss cover 0–4 Thresholds of 25% moss coverage; 0, no moss coverage
Light index No units Mean of light indexes of the main understory plant species (Ellenberg et al., 1991)
Moisture index No units Mean of soil-moisture indexes of the main understory plant species (Ellenberg et al., 1991)
Nitrogen index No units Mean of nitrogen-presence indexes of the main understory plant species (Ellenberg et al., 1991).
pH No units Mean pH of 4 soil sub-samples per plot (Oliva and Colinas, 2007)
LAI m2 m−2 Leaf area index, using hemispherical photos and analysed with Gap Light
Analyzer software 2.0 (Oliva and Colinas, 2007)

Dominant height m Mean height of the 100 largest- diameter trees per hectare
Mean height m Mean height of all A. alba trees within a plot
Density stems ha−1 A. alba density
Canopy closure % Mean crown closure of all A. alba trees in plot. Crown closure calculated as the
number of horizontal crown quadrants touching/overlapping other trees
Hart-Becking index m Hart-Becking index for A. alba trees. Assuming triangular tree distribution
Slenderness m m−1 Mean ratio, between height and diameter at breast height (DBH), of all trees in plot
BA m2 ha−1 Basal area. Accompanying species also included
Mean DBH cm Diameter of the mean BA tree
Type of mixture class Includes four classes: A. alba-F. sylvatica mixed stands, A. alba-P. sylvestris mixed
stands, A. alba-P. uncinata mixed stands and pure A. alba stands
Silver fir dynamics index No units Indicator of A. alba increase relative to co-existing tree species (Oliva and Colinas,
2007). Values higher than 1 imply fir decrease, values lower than 1 imply increasing
fir composition
Harvested BA No units Ratio between BA of stumps and BA of living trees
Number of interventions No units Visually assessed by the decay of stumps
Thinning intensity of the m2 ha−1 Calculated as the total harvested BA divided by the number of interventions
average intervention
Other sp. BA % Percentage of BA occupied by other species
Silver fir defoliation % Percentage of A. alba trees showing defoliation
Silver fir chlorosis % Percentage of A. alba trees showing chlorosis
Other species defoliation % Percentage of damaged trees of accompanying species according to their defoliation
Percentage weighted by the basal area of each tree
Silver fir mortality No units Ratio between BA of dead firs and BA of living firs
Other species mortality No units Ratio between BA of dead trees of accompanying species and BA of living trees
Mortality No units Ratio between BA of dead trees and BA of living trees