The Sibyla model and development of beech forests affected by air pollution

Abstract

Abstract:The paper deals with the health status, production and structure of autochthonous beech stands in the eastern part of the Krkonoše Mts. (Czech Republic). The region was affected by increased air pollution load due to long-range SO 2 transmission from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. In 1980, five research plots were established in long unmanaged beech stands at an optimum stage. Tree coordinates and initial biometrical measurements were made in 1980 and repeated in 2005. The defoliation of individual trees was monitored every year (ICP Forests principles). The actual stand development is compared with the model development worked out by the Sibyla growth simulator in variants with a model of natural mortality and with entering a real mortality of trees. Differences between the stand characteristics of actual and simulated development of forest stands suggest some production losses. The reason to the losses can be seen in the long-term impact of air pollution in the first decade of monitoring and its after-effects on soil quality and worsening health condition of stands. The anticipated acceleration in the onset of the phase of stand disintegration under the influence of air pollution load was not demonstrated.© Versita Sp. z o.o.

Dynamics and structure of mountain autochthonous spruce-beech forests: impact of hilltop phenomenon, air pollutants and climate

“…(Vacek et al, 2014). Model development of the studied PRP created by the SIBYLA growth simulator, which confirmed a high accuracy (Špulák & Souček, 2010;Vacek et al, 2015b), showed relative stability in the forest dynamics in the area of the hilltop phenomenon. ) (Vacek et al, 2015b).…”

Changes in horizontal structure of natural beech forests on an altitudinal gradient in the Sudetes

“…Research of Špulák and Souček (2010) also showed only moderate differences in evaluated stand indices between reality and models. However, in fact it is to take into account that the dynamics of beech forests may be influenced by unforeseeable anomalous disturbances of high intensity (Mountford 2002;Closset-Kopp et al 2006).…”

“…Climatic information was obtained from a nearby meteorological station at Rýchory. For a higher statistical significance of prediction the 36× repetition of simulation was used (6× repetition of structure generation, 6× repetition of prognosis) - (Špulák and Souček 2010). The arithmetic mean of variables from repeated simulations was calculated from the resultant value and then the simulation most approaching the mean was chosen.…”

Climate change impacts on growth and carbon ­balance of forests in Central Europe

“…Empirical forest growth models, such as the SIBYLA tree growth simulator, are mostly based on regression analysis-adapted growth curves concerning the relationships between age and height for different site conditions (Pretzsch 2009). Empirical growth models are capable of producing reliable outputs even under different climate change scenarios (Matala et al 2005), forest management (Lindner 2000), or atmospheric pollution (Špulák & Souček 2010). Such models are generally based on the conservation of climatic envelopes for species but they ignore the capacity of populations to modify their ecological niches in the future (Thuiller et al 2006).…”