Stanislav Vacek, Zdeněk Vacek, Lukáš Bílek, Jaroslav Simon, Jiří Remeš, Iva Hůnová, Jan Král, Tereza Putalová, Miroslav Mikeska. (2016). Structure, regeneration and growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands with respect to changing climate and environmental pollution. Silva Fennica vol. 50 no. 4 article id 1564. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.1564

Keywords: Pinus sylvestris; natural regeneration; climate; stand development; production; air-pollution

Highlights: Pine forest stands showed positive development of stand structural characteristics related to their diversity, number of regeneration individuals and growth characteristics; Tree-ring width was positively correlated with precipitation, while it was negatively correlated with temperature in growing seasons; Mean NO_x concentrations showed positive effect on radial growth of pine; Serious defoliation was caused by SO₂ concentrations and N deposition in combination with extreme climate events.

Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Changes in the structure and development of managed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands with respect to changing environmental conditions were set for the period 1979–2015. The study was conducted in conditions of natural pinewoods and pine-oak sites on five permanent research plots (0.25 ha) in Eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic (CR). Studied forest stands showed positive development of stand structural characteristics related to their diversity, number of regeneration individuals and growth characteristics. The standing volume of regularly distributed tree layer in 2015 was in the range of 320–434 m³ ha^–1, which indicates an increase by 5.9–20.0% over 10 years. Correlation between pine radial increment and the amount of precipitation was generally the strongest one. Positive statistically significant correlation between diameter increment and temperature was demonstrated only for the average March temperature of the current year. Within the CR, study site can be characterised as a medium polluted area both for sulphur and nitrogen, despite this SO₂concentrations and N deposition in combination with extreme climate events caused severe defoliation in pine stands. Conversely, radial growth was positively significantly correlated with mean NO_x concentrations. Drought mainly in combination with even medium environmental pollution can further worsen the health status of pine stands in lowland areas of Central Europe. Thus, formulation of silvicultural techniques able to mitigate the impact of these stress factors is needed.

Vacek, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: vacekstanislav@fld.czu.cz
Vacek, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: vacekz@fld.czu.cz
Bílek, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: bilek@fld.czu.cz
Simon, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic E-mail: jaroslav.simon@mendelu.cz
Remeš, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: remesj@email.cz
Hůnová, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Na Šabatce 17 143 06 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: hunova@chmi.cz
Král, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: kraljan@fld.czu.cz
Putalová, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague, Czech Republic E-mail: putalova@fld.czu.cz
Mikeska, University of Hradec Králové, Faculty of Science, Rokitanského 62, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic E-mail: Mikeska.Miroslav@uhul.cz

Click this link to register to Silva Fennica.

If you are a registered user, log in to save your selected articles for later access.

Contents alert

Your selected articles

Follow @SilvaFennica