Ground-level ozone (O3) concentrations are expected to increase over the 21(st) century, especially in East Asia. However, the impact of O3 has not been directly assessed at the forest level in this region. We performed O3 flux-based risk assessments of carbon sequestration capacity in an old cool temperate deciduous forest, consisting of O3-sensitive Japanese beech (Fagus crenata), and in a wa...

Aim of study: This contribution describes a systematic search method for identifying optimum thinning regimes for beech forests (Fagus sylvatica L.) by using a combination of optimization heuristics and a simple whole stand growth prediction model. Area of study: Data to build the model come from standard and management forest inventories as well as yield tables from the Northern and Western pa...

Resource sustainability requires a thorough understanding of the influence of forest management programs on the conservation of genetic diversity in tree populations. To observe how differences in forest management affect the genetic structure of Fagus orientalis Lipsky (oriental beech), we evaluated thirteen beech sites across Hyrcanian forests, based on six microsatellite loci. Significant di...

Little is known about the gap pattern of primeval beech forests, since large-scale studies with continuous coverage are lacking. Analyses of forest structural patterns have benefitted from advances in remote sensing, especially with the launch of satellites providing data of submetric ground resolution. These developments can strongly advance our knowledge of natural forest dynamics and disturb...

The fine-scale assessment of both spatially and non-spatially distributed genetic variation is crucial to preserve forest genetic resources through appropriate forest management. Cryptic within-population genetic structure may be more common than previously thought in forest tree populations, which has strong implications for the potential of forests to adapt to environmental change. The presen...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Forest tree saplings that grow in the understorey undergo frequent changes in their light environment to which they must adapt to ensure their survival and growth. Crown architecture, which plays a critical role in light capture and mechanical stability, is a major component of sapling adaptation to canopy disturbance. Shade-adapted saplings typically have plagiotropic stems...

Pathogens change forest composition and structure by selectively eliminating susceptible individuals and species. Caused by a complex between an exotic scale insect and fungi, beech bark disease has infected mature American beech (Fagus grandifolia) trees through most of the species range. Before succumbing to the disease, infected trees generate root sprouts, transforming beech from a dominant...

Based on materials gained in March 2015 from the Forest Data Bank the survey of some attributes (forest address including Regional Directorate of State Forest (RDSF), area in hectares, soil unit, forest site type, dominant species in a forest stand and age of the dominant species in a stand) of post-agricultural lands occurring in Polish State Forests was conducted in the paper. Distribution of...