The wind and fire disturbance in Central European mountain spruce forests: the regeneration after four years

Abstract

A strong windstorm in November 2004 resulted in a huge blown-down spruce forest area in the southern part of the Tatra National Park in the Western Carpathians in Slovakia, Central Europe. The aim of this work is to study the vegetation composition of spruce forest at differently managed sites four years after this disturbance. Four study areas were selected for this purpose: (<strong><em>i</em></strong>) an area where the fallen trees were extracted and new seedlings were planted; (<strong><em>ii</em></strong>) an area, which was hit by a forest fire after the extraction; (<strong><em>iii</em></strong>) an area where no active management was applied; (<strong><em>iv</em></strong>) a reference forest unaffected by such disturbance. A total of 100 plots were selected, 25 of each area type. The result of DCA and CCA analyses consistently indicated that after this short period the non-extracted and extracted areas are currently most similar to the reference forest area, while the fire affected area differed. A one-way ANOVA comparing species cover for the different plot sizes indicated some significant differences between the extracted and non-extracted plots. The abundance of certain species commonly occurring in spruce forests, such as <em>Dyopteris carthusiana</em> agg., <em>Vaccinium myrtillus</em> and <em>Avenella flexuosa</em>, correlated weli with the non-extracted plots, compared to the extracted plots. Coverage of these species was lowest on burned plots. The lowest Shannon-Wiener’s diversity values were recorded in burned plots. This was most likely a consequence of mono-dominant competitive species spread, (mainly <em>Chamerion angustifolium</em>) which profited from the altered ecological conditions following the fire. Although some differences were also registered in the Shannon-Wiener diversity index between the remaining research plots, however these were not statistically significant. The most important results of our investigations include the extensive influence of fire disturbance on vegetation. Study revealed that the wind-disturbed area is able to regenerate sufficiently without human intervention

Spatial diversity of forest regeneration after catastrophic wind in northeastern Poland

“…They note also that both species differed in respect to the local relief and that pine recruits occurred generally closer to the ground. While there are many examples in the literature of the effect of windthrow on species composition change (Ulanova 2000, Arévalo et al 2000, Xi et al 2008, Dobrowolska 2010, Holzmueller et al 2012, Budzáková et al 2013) and the relationships between gaps, disturbed microsites and the occurrence and growth of regeneration, there are no reports about how windthrow affects the regeneration structure with respect to tree size. Our results indicated rather high differentiation in young growth height.…”

“…Natural disturbances (e.g., storm events) are now recognized to be among the most important processes that guide forest dynamics (Oliver & Larson 1996, Panayotov et al 2011, Budzáková et al 2013 because of their effects on forest structure, species composition, patchiness and resource availability. In most cases, windthrows help to revive the habitat.…”

“…Severe wind storms are expected to increase in Europe, especially in the continental zone, and the role of such natural disturbances in shaping European forest ecosystems has received increasing attention (Ulanova 2000, Močalov & Lässig 2002, Nagel et al 2006, Shorohova et al 2008, Svoboda & Pouska 2008, Xi et al 2008, Vodde et al 2010, Dobrowolska 2010, Holzmueller et al 2012, Budzáková et al 2013, Mitchell 2013, Spathelf et al 2014. Catastrophic windstorms usually cause the destruction of tree canopy and influence the environmental conditions (Ulanova 2000, Mitchell 2013).…”

Salvage-Logging after Windstorm Leads to Structural and Functional Homogenization of Understory Layer and Delayed Spruce Tree Recovery in Tatra Mts., Slovakia

“…The climate of the mountain range is continental, with the mean annual precipitation of 864 mm (temperature peaks in June and July) and the mean annual temperature of 4.7 • C that ranges between −5.6 • C in January and 14.4 • C in July [39]. Forest soils are mainly dystric cambisols [42] and the vegetation is classified as spruce forest with Vaccinium myrtillus of the order Piceion excelsae and fir, fir-spruce forests (Abietion albae and Vaccinio-Abietion) [43]. The study sites are located within the altitude ranging between 1100 and 1400 m.…”

Recovery of the herbaceous layer in the young silver birch and black alder stands that developed spontaneously after a forest fire

“…The way that herbs protect their buds and therefore the origin of their shoots (seeds, rhizomes, stolons, bulbs, etc. ), the depth at which they are stored (in organic, combustible material or in the inflammable mineral layers of soil) and the initial soil moisture content are important factors that are responsible for the community restoration process following a forest fire (Falin´ski 1998a;Brown and Smith 2000;Kwiatkowska-Falin´ska 2008;Budza´-kova´et al 2013). The survivorship of some species in an area where a forest has burned allows for their regeneration.…”