The experiment conducted in the Kampinos National Park since 2015 is aimed at investigating the relationship between the dynamics of black cherry sprouting response and the type and term of implementation of the mechanical elimination procedure. It also identifies macrofungi colonizing trees undergoing eradication. Three treatments, basal cut-stump, cutting (height: ca. 1 m) and girdling, were performed on 4 terms: early and late spring, summer and winter. Each variant was conducted within two plots, and applied to 25 trees, to 600 trees in total. For two consecutive vegetation seasons, sprouts were removed approximately every 8 weeks with the exception of winter-treated trees. Qualitative data were analysed, that is, the number of trees with and without sprouts at subsequent controls, and at the end of the second season, except winter-treated trees. Initially, almost 100% of the trees cut at the base and cut high responded by sprouting. The share of trees without sprouts gradually increased during the following vegetation season, from 3 rd to 5 th repetition of the sprouts removal, depending on the variant of experiment. Girdling contributed to a delay in sprouting. The effectiveness of procedures, expressed as share of trees without sprouts at the end of the second vegetation season, ranged widely (12%-84%), and depended statistically significantly on the date of the treatment. The effectiveness was higher for treatments done in early (average 68%) and late spring (average 74%), as compared to those done in summer (average 35%). Mycological research concerned 600 trees, including those treated in winter, without sprouts removal. Occurrence of 26 taxa of macrofungi was confirmed on 25% of trees; most of them having wood-decaying properties. Chondrostereum purpureum was most frequent, colonizing 9% of trees. Impact of plots varying soil moisture on succession and rate of fungi colonization, and on sprouting response dynamics requires further research.

Efforts to prevent the invasion of black cherry Prunus serotina Ehrh. have a long history in Western Europe. However, effective methods of eliminating it that do not bear negative side effects for ecosystems have not yet been developed. Mechanical methods are the first choice in environmentally sensitive areas. In this study, we aimed to find answers to the questions: does the application of cutting at a height of 1 m from the ground limit the sprouting capacities of black cherry? And, is stem girdling an effective method of eliminating black cherry? The study was carried out in the Kampinos National Park, on two mixed pine forest plots with undergrowth of black cherry. Three mechanical methods of elimination were applied: cut-stump at the base, cutting at a height of 1 m above the ground and girdling of the stem at a height of ca 1 m above the ground. In both locations, 225 trees were treated, at three different dates corresponding with three different phenological phases of black cherry development. The evaluation of effectiveness of treatments was based on the sprouting capacity of the tree afterwards, which included: the number of generated sprouts, the length of three longest sprouts, dry mass of sprouts, and the assessment of tree survival rate. It was discovered that girdling is a significantly more effective method of control than ground-level cut-stump or cutting at a height of 1 m above the ground in the conditions of central Poland. However, in the season of treatment, even though recurring sprouts were removed, only a part of the girdled trees died (24% to 54%). There is a slight difference between the sprouting response of cutting at a height of 1 m above the ground (4% to 24% of dead trees) and the basal cut-stump method (0% of dead trees).

Keywords:earlywood vessels / hydraulic conductivity / Fraxinus excelsior / tree decline / wood annual increments Abstract • The aim of this work was to examine the anatomy and functioning of secondary xylem in stems in relation to the decline of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.).• We tested the hypothesis that declining trees show changes in the structure of wood, which result in impaired water transport.• Anatomical analyses were carried out on wood samples (comprising all annual rings formed during the 30 years life of the analysed trees) collected at breast height from the main stem of healthy, weakened and dead ash trees. The width of annual wood increments, the diameter and density of earlywood vessels were measured and the theoretical hydraulic conductivity index through the secondary xylem calculated by application of Hagen-Poisseuille's formula.• Anatomical characteristics changed both with the age of trees and in response to unfavorable factors. The largest vessels were observed in healthy trees, which implied that they had the highest hydraulic conductivity index, whereas trees considered to be in decline produce smaller vessels and hence had reduced conductivity. Mots-clés :vaisseaux du bois initial / conductivité hydraulique / Fraxinus excelsior / dépérissement des arbres / accroissements annuels du bois Résumé -La diminution du diamètre des vaisseaux, un facteur possible du dépérissement de Fraxinus excelsior L.• Le but de ce travail était d'étudier l'anatomie et le fonctionnement du xylème secondaire dans le tronc en relation avec le dépérissement de Fraxinus excelsior L.• Nous avons testé l'hypothèse selon laquelle les arbres dépérissants présentent des changements dans la structure du bois, qui se traduisent par un dysfonctionnement du transport de l'eau.• Des analyses anatomiques ont été effectuées sur des échantillons de bois (comprenant tous les cernes formés au cours des 30 années de vie des arbres analysés) recueillis à hauteur de poitrine sur la tige principale d'arbres sains, affaiblis ou morts. La largeur des accroissements annuels du bois, le diamètre et la densité des vaisseaux du bois initial ont été mesurés, et un indice théorique de conductivité hydraulique du xylème secondaire a été calculé par l'application de la loi de Hagen-Poisseuille.• Les caractéristiques anatomiques ont changé à la fois avec l'âge des arbres et en réponse à des facteurs défavorables. Les vaisseaux les plus largers ont été observés chez les arbres sains, ce qui implique un indice de conductivité hydraulique élevé, tandis que les arbres considérés comme dépé-rissants ont produit des vaisseaux plus petits et avaient donc une conductivité réduite.

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a widespread species throughout Europe and at the same time is dominant in Polish forests and of key importance in the wood industry. Pine stands are subjected to numerous environmental stresses, and one of them is the different physico-chemical and biological properties of post-agricultural soils compared to forest soils, which may affect the properties of the resulting wood and its industrial suitability. The research material taken at the height of 1.3 m from tree trunks (breast height diameter, dbh) in the form of sections and discs was collected in an 80-year-old pine stand from four plots, representing former agricultural and ancient forest land, and two types of habitats: fresh coniferous forest and fresh mixed coniferous forest. The forest habitat trophy had a decisive impact on the dendrometric characteristics and properties of pine wood (density, modulus of elasticity, bending strength, and compressive strength along the tracheids). The history of soil use (post-agricultural or forestry) did not affect the analyzed pine wood properties. Regardless of the forest habitat type and soil type history, pine wood at the dbh height showed a variability of features typical of century-old cultivated stands. Individual pine trunks were characterized by significant individual variability.

Acidophilous oak forests Calamagrostio arundinaceae-Quercetum petraeae (hartm. 1934 scam. et Pass. 1959) are mostly known from the western part of Poland, while its eastern border has not been determined accurately. in order to address this issue, we performed a phytosociological analysis of two newly identified stands of acidophilous oak forest located in the southern part of the Mazovian Voivodeship near Kiedrzyn (vicinity of Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą) and Mikówka (vicinity of Białobrzegi). For comparison, we also examined the distribution of known patches in the region (Łódź and Mazovian Voivodeships) against this association’s background of the eastern range border.Within the identified sites, a total of 10 phytosociological relevés were taken and soil samples were collected from a depth of 10 cm. the content of organic matter, soil ph and sieving analysis were performed in the laboratory. the phytosociological material was ordered and numerically classified which gave two groups of relevés: typical for this association (seven relevés) and a degenerated form (three relevés), which has an increased share of pine in the stand. All our relevés were similar to acidophilous oak forests from the Wielkopolska region and thus different from oak-pine forests of eastern Poland. habitat conditions of the patches and the bonitation of oak were analogous to patches of this association from other parts of Poland. Furthermore, the sites we studied are located between known locations from the Bolimowska and Kozienicka Forests and are therefore connecting these two previously known areas of occurrence. this indicates that the range of the Calamagrostio-Quercetum association is at least a few dozen kilometers wider in this part of the country than the assumed range.

This paper deals with the spatial distribution of heartwood in Scots pine stems (Pinus sylvestris L.), determined on the basis of the absence of nuclei in parenchyma cells. Samples were collected at several heights from two Scots pine stems growing in fresh coniferous stand as codominant trees. Transverse and radial sections were cut from the samples and stained with acetocarmine to detect the nuclei and with I2KI to show starch grains. Unstained sections were also observed under ultraviolet (UV) light to reveal cell wall lignification. The shapes of the nuclei in ray and axial parenchyma cells differed: the axial parenchyma cells had rounded nuclei, while the nuclei of the ray parenchyma cells were elongated. The lifespan of the parenchyma cells was found to be 16–42 years; the longest-lived were cells from the base of the stem, and the shortest-lived were from the base of the crown. The largest number of growth rings comprising heartwood was observed at a height of 1.3–3.3 m, which signifies that the distribution of heartwood within the stem is uneven. Moreover, the distance of the cells from the apical meristem and the cambium was seen to have an effect on the presence of living parenchyma cells, i.e., those with stained nuclei.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/56656 . IntroductionTrees as long-living organisms can be looked as the archives of ecological events recorded in the annual rings of wood. These can play an important role in studying and reconstruction of climate variation. The ability of a tree genotype to adjust the phenotype over the life of a tree is a consequence of short-term to long-term physiological responses to environmental changes, the ability which can be used to link environment with wood structure. The anatomical features of tree rings such as conduits size and density, cell wall thickness and the share of different tissues are sources of information on global environmental changes throughout the last millennium and on the strategies of species responses to the evaluation of the impact of predicted climate change on vegetation dynamics.The aim of this chapter is to present the up to date knowledge about the changes in woody plant hydraulics in response to water stress. The understanding of drought impact on plant water conducting systems structure and functioning and their possible adjustments becomes especially essential in respect to climate change projections for Central Europe predicting lower summer precipitation combined with prolonged drought periods. The issue of structural basis for water flow in wood of woody plants and the methods of its measurement and assessment are presented and the adjustments to water stress in short-and long-time scale as well as at different levels of woody plant organizations discussed. . Structural basis for woody plants hydraulicsWood anatomy can be studied in the view of different disciplines e.g. technical applications, tree pathology, ecology, dendrochronology but also in terms of hydraulics as a specific hydrosystem based on cells with lumina filled with water.© 2013 Marciszewska and Tulik; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In perennial vascular plants the transport of water is to great extent determined by the hydraulic architecture. This term describes the xylem network within the plant and its variations with wood type, plant age and growth form e.g. liana, shrub vs. tree [ ]. The xylem network integrates all main parts of the plant s body, i.e. roots, branches and leaves. It means that any root in this system is more or less directly connected with any branch and not with a single one. Moreover, the xylem network is redundant in two meanings at a given level of the stem several xylem element are present in parallel and they develop lateral contacts with other tracks of vessels or tracheids.The xylem network is mainly represented by tracheary elements conduits that arise from vascular cambium periodically or continuously. Mature tracheary elements are dead cells with lignified wa...

Landslides and erosion processes cause a high level of morphological diversity which, over the course of time, results in an increased level of forest species and habitat biodiversity. According to the principles of landscape ecology, information concerning points of convergence-understood as transition zones between elementary parts of a slope-could be interpreted as a surrogate for biodiversity. To recognize locations of land surface disruption, points of convergence derived from a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) were used in the research. It was assumed that relationships exist between landslide geodiversity and biodiversity and that from the DEM it is possible to select bare-earth surface structures where points of convergence can be identified. In order to verify this hypothesis, indicators of biodiversity such as richness of plant species and species diversity were checked. Based on the spatial distribution of points of convergence, locations of sample plots were planned and these indicators were verified during fieldwork. Samples were taken both in areas with a high concentration of points of convergence and in areas with a low concentration (or absence) of points of convergence. The results show that species diversity in the areas having a high concentration of points of convergence was significantly higher than in the areas having a low concentration of points of convergence. The proposed method allows the selection of parts of forested landslides that have the potential to develop a high level of biological diversity; it thus supports the management of areas of forest ecosystems with high levels of biodiversity within the scope of a cutting system. This may entail avoiding the traversal of areas that potentially possess high biological diversity with skid roads, preserving parts of these areas with thick vegetation for forest game purposes or leaving predominant and dead trees. The proposed method may also be used in scientific research into processes of biodiversity appearing on forested landslides.