In time of climate change, close-to-nature silviculture is growing in importance as a tool for future forest management. The paper study the tree layer and natural regeneration of monospecific Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.), trough mixed spruce-beech to dominant European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests in Jizerské hory Mts., the Czech Republic. In the locality, shelterwood and selection system have been applied since 2000. The research objectives were to evaluate production parameters, structural diversity, species richness, natural regeneration dynamics and radial growth of individual tree species in relation to climatic factors and air pollution. The stand volume on permanent research plots amounted to 441 – 731 m3 ha−1 in initial stage of transformation. Natural regeneration showed high expansion of beech and decrease of spruce compared to mature tree species composition. Radial growth of spruce was in significant negative correlation with SO2 and NOX concentrations compared to no effect on beech increment. Moreover, spruce was more sensitive to significant years with extreme low radial growth. Beech was more stable in radial growth. Spruce was more resistant to air pollution and climatic stress in mixed stands. Low temperature was limiting factor of radial growth together with climate extremes (such as strong frosts and more frequent droughts) and biotic factors (bark beetle, beech scale). Close-to-nature management supporting admixed tree species should lead in future to diversification of stand structure toward higher species, spatial and age structure to mitigate negative effect of climatic change.
Long-term temporal development of beech stands in relation to climatic conditions is well documented by dendrochronological analyses. The study aims to identify and describe growth factors affecting natural European beech stands (Fagus sylvatica L.) on permanent research plots in the eastern Krkonoše Mountains, the Czech Republic. The paper focus on radial growth dynamics, frequency and cyclicity, and the effect of climatic factors on diameter increment of beech stands since 1850. The growth development of beech stands was significantly affected by air pollution load in 1977–1989, and increasingly frequent climate extremes in recent years (since 2010). Periodic increment events recurred in approximately 10–18 years’ periods. Stands on research plots responded differently to climatic factors, the main limiting factor being low temperatures during the growing season, frost damages and extreme droughts. The positive influence of temperatures on beech increments was recorded in winter, early spring, and especially in July and August of the current year. Conversely, precipitation in the previous year had higher impact on radial increment, with prevailing negative correlation. The plots were negatively affected by the decrease in sum of precipitation in February and March, but it was the temperature that influenced the beech increment most significantly. Dendrochronological analysis of close-to-nature beech stands provides valuable information on radial forest growth in response to changing climatic conditions.
In 1986, the UN ECE established the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of AirPollution Effects on Forests (hereinafter ICP Forests) to respond on the growing concern about forest damage caused since the beginning of eighties by air pollution load. Pan-European grid of the (ICP Forests) monitoring plots represents one of the most important systems of forest ecosystems assessing and checking. The Czech Republic is unfortunately well known due to this problem and so the country joined ICP Forest Programme since the very beginning. The paper presents general information on Czech forest stand condition that gained through various methods in the past as well as in the frame of ICP Forests. The participation in the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) represents a contribution of the EU candidate country to the fulfillment of the Reg. (EEC) No. 3528/86. However it seems that effects and importance of air pollution are decreasing, a lot of new stress situations exists and there is a need for continuing the programme.
Over the past 50 yr, there has been an unprecedented deterioration of the environment of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Air pollutants from fossil fuel combustion and heavy industry threaten productivity and in some places the future survival of forests. Political changes at the end of the 1980s were followed by economic transformations and significant declines in pollutant emissions. The decline in emissions was particularly noticeable (more than 50% in some countries) for sulfur dioxide. However, reductions in the atmospheric concentrations of toxic gases have not eliminated local and regional forest declines or the existence of pollution 'hot spots' with average daily concentrations of SO2 up to 1000 µg m-3. Changes in defoliation levels have not followed reductions in pollutant emissions and remain high throughout the region. Imbalanced nutrition is an important factor affecting tree health and reducing the resistance of forest ecosystems to combinations of other stresses. The reasons for the lack of a direct relationship between regional pollution loads and tree crown condition are uncertain and need further investigation. A new type of intensive monitoring (UN-ECE level II) should provide regional information about the ecological risks facing forest ecosystems, and should also lead to recommendations for forest management in areas impacted by air pollution. In Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, over 3.5 million hectares of forests were affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, resulting in the withdrawal of the wood and secondary products from the market and up to 10 times higher than normal costs of forest operations.
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