Half-deciduous woodlands are the combination of deciduous forests and heath forests from their vegetation. The article describes three half-deciduous forest types from the commune of Hager, 40 kilometers south form Tallinn.
The occurrence of half-deciduous forests depends on the soil conditions, especially on lime content of the soil, when the occurrence of other forest types is more a question of climate. They are important as an original site for many continental plant species.
The PDF contains a summary in Finnish.
The article summarizes the observations about forest types from different parts of Estonia. The chosen examples represent the normal forest where age class division is natural and the species composition has not been altered through felling or grazing. These are mainly found in the areas of earlier manors of the nobility. The samples are only from mineral soils. Vegetation analysis and middle-European height-over-age-survey were made.
Because of the great share of herb-rich-forest the forest type classification for Estonia is complex. There are many types that have not been described earlier.
The study describes the characteristics and the vegetation types of the heath forests, fresh forests, half-herb-rich-forests and herb-rich-forests.
The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.